Losing Control

Chapter 17: Manipulation

"...goddess...near..." Meliodas grumbled as he held his head. Upon looking at Elizabeth, he threw his arm back and the darkness swallowed it and turned it into an axe. "Die." Before he could finish the job, a familiar figure stood in and saved Elizabeth. "Sorry for my absence." She joked as she nudged her arm.

"Merlin?" Elizabeth asked confused. "Yes. And I'm here to stop Meliodas." He stood there quiet with a poker face. "Stop...me..?" He asked mockingly. "Damn right~" Ban cooed as he ran in and punched Meliodas. While he was focused on Ban, the commandments were recovering. "Damnit. They heal faster than I remember." Merlin said as she was casting the spell. "Escanor! Distract them!" She shouted.

Escanor dropped down with a golden axe in his hand. "Anything for you Lady Merlin." He replied as he readied himself. When the commandments fully recovered, they noticed their prince in a fight with the mage casting something. "Go!" Deriere ordered as they speed blitzed Escanor. Only Deriere stayed behind to fight him. "One on one? This is hardly fair." Escanor boasted.

Melascula and Monspeet rushed Merlin. Elizabeth tried to slow them down but was pushed aside. Upon landing, she whimpered in pain which got Meliodas' attention. His aura quickly changed from berserk to being controlled. He caught Ban's fist and flipped him forward. With Ban on the ground, Meliodas rushed toward Elizabeth.

Right before Meliodas could reach her, Escanor was launched into Meliodas who hit his head on a pole and was knocked out. Seeing Meliodas hurt, sent the demons into a blind rage. Deriere sprinted to Ban and continued her combo on him, constantly blowing his body up.

Meanwhile Escanor had recovered from the hit and ran to Merlin's side. He punched Melascula away and started charging a cruel sun. When he shot the cruel sun at Monspeet, he countered by shooting a hellbird. The explosion knocked Merlin back into a wall which forced some debris to fall on her. She was trapped and unable to move so Escanor dashed to help.

Upon leaving himself open, Melascula whipped him with a dark tentacle and Monspeet shot a second hellbird. The combination was enough to force Escanor to drop his axe. As soon as his grip loosened, Melascula grabbed the axe with her tentacles and threw it at Deriere.

Sensing its approach, Deriere ducked and grabbed it with two hands. She flipped it to the flat side and hit Ban with it. The force sent him through several classrooms. "Nice teamwork Melascula." Deriere praised. Gloxinia and Drole clapped awkwardly in the background. "G...Good job." Drole said.

"What the hell were you two doing this fight?" Deriere hissed. "Our job was to distract or suppress Meliodas but...your fight knocked him out cold." Gloxinia explained. Without another word, Deriere and Monspeet appeared behind Gowther. "We warned you." She spat as she began attacking.

"What the hell's your problem? Warned me about what?" Gowther frantically asked. "Messing with the prince's mind. I can sense you tampering with him idiot." She growled as the onslaught continued. Gowther tried jumping away but it only made the situation worse. Upon jumping, Deriere grabbed him and shouted, "NOW!" Before Gowther could react, a hellbird hit him in his chest.

They were sent flying toward a wall, but Deriere got out of the way. Melascula then grabbed Gowther with her tentacles. "Die." She snarled as she snapped the head off the doll.

"Great. Now we have five empty spots on the commandments." Deriere complained. "The prince makes six. Technically, we only need four." Drole added. "We could get the Demon King to restore Galand and give the prince his commandment." Melascula continued. "Let's go." Monspeet commanded as they all left toward the demon realm.

Meanwhile, Ban has finally recovered from the hit and made it back to the fighting spot. All he saw was his friends unconcious and the commandments were missing.... and Meliodas. He hurriedly tried to wake the others but it wouldn't work. As a back up plan, he brought King to the sight for healing. He healed his fellow sins and Elizabeth which made him extremely tired.

"What the hell was that Escanor?" Ban furiously asked. "What was what?" He calmly asked. "We could've won if you didn't lose your cool when Merlin got hit. You were stronger than them!" Ban shouted. "I am the strongest so that is obvious Ban. However, Lady Merlin comes first." He boasted.

"To break the tension, Merlin said, "On the bright side, the real Meliodas is still there somewhere. When Elizabeth got hit, he rushed toward her. The only reason he was stopped was because...Escanor...hit him." She trailed off. "See what I mean? Escanor was dragging us down in this fight!" Ban snarled as loud as he could which got the other students' attention.

"Are the sins gonna fight? They're usually so calm and friendly." was all that could be heard echoing through the school. Throughout all of this, Elizabeth was silent. She was thinking about what she heard.

'What did they mean? Was Gowther behind all of this? I thought Meliodas already had a commandment? He's already unstable. If they force more darkness on him...he-'

Before she could finish her thought, Ban snapped her out of her thought. "You okay princess? You must've got hit hard to catch that bastard's attention.~" He joked.

"Finally. We made it home. Not much longer my prince." Melascula cooed as she held Meliodas' body next to her. The other commandments rolled their eyes and Galand coughed a bit through his stone prison. "Were you always this creepy Melascula?" He mocked.