~Elizabeth~
I stood watching as The Prince of Demons turned and smoothly glided away.
There was a strange grace to him, an odd, otherworldly strength that could never belong to a creature of this world.
But he felt human. He felt mortal. He felt alive.
I stared down at my traitorous right hand in morbid curiosity, the events of this night flashing through my mind once more.
I had just... reached out. Held a demon's hand. Ruffled his hair. Yanked him around the village like he was a mere human.
And it had felt so natural.
Since I was a young child just learning how to cast an ark, I had been told that demons were brutish savages that were far below us. I had been told of their leaders, Meliodas of Love and Zeldris, monstrous creatures who should be slain at the first opportunity presented. That was how I had recognized Meliodas today.
Delicate features befitting a fairy. Overwhelming power. And the dreaded mark of the demons, displayed proudly for all to see.
When he was a mere name on a page, it was easy to imagine ending him... of making my mother proud of me. But when faced with the living creature, when faced with flesh and blood and a sort of dark sarcasm I thought equated humor in his mind... I couldn't.
Because a question plagued me still.
From the moment I had identified Meliodas's dark aura, I had rushed to evacuate a large part of the village -Meliodas wouldn't have noticed the lack of activity, as humans were prone to sleep at night- and had signaled to the archangels before landing to try to stall the demon for as long as I could.
I knew I had no chance against him, drained of magic as I was. The part of me that was Elizabeth -the one who liked flowers and dancing and had cried at the sight of blood- wanted to run, to hide and wait for the archangels to come help. But the part that was Bloodstained Ellie, the part that had been honed to a sharp edge by horrors no one deserved to know... that part was utterly unafraid as she approached one of the most powerful creatures in this realm.
But neither Elizabeth nor Bloodstained Ellie had expected an innocent-looking boy, content to play along with her foolish game.
That was the question that plagued me.
If demons desire blood and pain and suffering above all else, how was I whole and uninjured? Yes, he had tried to... actually, not really. 'Choking' implies that he was trying to kill me, but looking back, it felt more half-hearted than anything else. As horrible as it may sound, I knew from past experiences that I had more than enough strength to snap a demon's neck. If Meliodas was physically stronger than me... well, it should have been easy for him to end me in that tiny window of time when he'd had me pinned.
But I had no more time to dwell on the debatable morals of a demon.
"Ellie! Are you alright?" Mael's voice was panicked, and I looked over in that direction to see him landing gracefully on the ceramic shingles of one of the village houses.
"Yeah, I'm okay!"
Mael's face darkened. "Ellie, did you kill the demon? I don't sense any demonic aura here now-" he gasped in surprise, and I winced as Mael came to the same realization I had come to hours earlier. "Meliodas? You faced the demon prince of Love? Why isn't there a crater here?"
"I don't... I don't know."
At least I thought I didn't. There were a thousand possible reasons, but none seemed to be quite right. And the ones that did were treasonous.
Mael nodded gravely. "Well, we know that Meliodas was here, so I'll adjust the patrols to focus more heavily on this village. For now, let's get back and report to the others."
That sounded about right, but something told me that Meliodas wasn't here to scout or plan an attack. For one, why would he come in person? He had to have had better things to do than that! Besides, wouldn't a scouting mission be a better fit for a low-level demon much less likely to be detected? What Meliodas was planning... what the demons were planning... could be far worse.
I said as much to Mael, and he thought about it for a moment.
"I suppose... but this also fits in perfectly with the renowned arrogance of demons. Whatever it is, I think it's better to be safe than regret it later, so I suggest leaving a small group of goddesses here, but I'll leave the decision to Ludociel."
"But Ludociel will just say that one human settlement isn't worth weakening our defenses for!" I said.
Then what would have been the point of risking my life? Although I was willing to do whatever it took to help save lives, I didn't think lightly of death. Having The Supreme Deity's daughter in the mortal world -preferably alive- evened out the balance of power between demons and goddesses.
Mael cringed ever so slightly, but said, "My brother couldn't be that cruel. But still, if he refuses to strengthen defenses here-"
"If he refuses, you'll agree with letting me take my own legion to patrol in this area." I interrupted smoothly.
I had Mael nicely pinned. If he refused, he'd have to admit that his brother wasn't nearly as great as he thought. If he agreed, then I'd have what I wanted: the chance to protect people. For the first time in my long centuries of living in the mortal world, I thanked Ludociel for his mind games. They were annoying, but at least they made me stronger.
"Fine, but if my brother does agree, you owe me your dessert for a week." Mael gave me a playful smile, and the horrible heaviness of the subject dissipated. "Prepare to suffer!"
I doubted it.
* * *
I walked along the long, pristine white corridors of the goddess base, resisting the urge to sigh in frustration.
Ludociel had -as I had suspected- refused to send a large enough fighting force, and had promptly given me the 'you are the daughter of The Supreme Deity and lada lala' speech. In the end, however, that had worked out well enough, because -after my pleading and demanding and generally acting like a little nuisance- Ludociel had finally agreed to free up a little unit.
That made me wonder, however, did I technically owe Mael some dessert? Ludociel had refused at first, just like I'd said, after all. Then again, he'd also eventually given in...
But that was not the most pressing matter. Apparently, the unit was led by a newly promoted Divine Lance Corporal.
I shuddered at the thought.
After all, who else could it be but Nerobasta? I knew it, Ludociel did hate me.
I couldn't say Nerobasta was a bad person -I didn't know her well enough to say that, and I didn't like to think of people as good or bad- but I could say that she wasn't a kind one.
From the first moment I had met her, only two things had stood out to me. Her obsession with Ludociel... and her disdain of humans. Actually, make that disdain and hatred for all races besides the goddesses.
Understandably, neither of those two traits had made me want to know her any better.
And now I would be forced to.
I knew how hard this would be for her -as I understood it, Nerobasta thought anything that didn't involve Ludociel was misery incarnate- but it was just... well, I didn't want to worry about Nerobasta being mean and grouchy to everyone while I was trying to protect a village-
"Ay! Wait up, my legs aren't as long as yours!"
I whipped around, pasting a fake smile on my face... and came face to face with a petite little girl who looked just a little younger than me.
"Oh, um, do I know you?" I asked, trying not to let my dreadful mood bleed into my voice.
"Nah, but I do hope we can be friends! If you want to. Do you want to?" The girl asked, big amber eyes locked on me.
Sure? I'm Elizabeth." I fidgeted nervously with my hair, tucking it behind my ear to give my hands something to do.
I wasn't used to having female friends.
As the Supreme Deity's daughter, I was used to being treated with perfect reverence... or the guise of reverence. No one was unkind, but... well, I wanted more than 'not unkind' in someone I considered a friend.
That particular standard was quite difficult to meet when everyone thought my mother or Mael would strike them dead for so much as bumping into me.
My mother... she didn't care at all. As long as I could perform my duties... what did it matter to The Supreme Deity whether one goddess lived or died? Mael... well, I could kind of see how others might think him intimidating.
So, my only friends ended up being three of the archangels... who were all male.
"Great! I'm... well, you can call me Jelamet, and I lead the unit that you'll be working with. The grumpy old veterans screw up their faces and call me 'Divine Lance Corporal' but the title's kinda hard to spell, and I can barely write my own name, so..."
Part of me wanted to jump for joy, and the other part wanted to curl up in a ball and cry.
For one, this Divine Lance Corporal seemed amazing, in the way that her presence meant I didn't have to deal with Nerobasta... but because of this horrible war, she'd never even learned to write properly. How many others like her were out there? Here I was, complaining about having no female friends, when some people never learned to write, and others were dying?
I had to end this war, but how would I-
The demons.
Meliodas had proven that demons could reason, and if that were true... then could a treaty really have a chance of success?
When I'd first brought it up to The Council and the archangels, they had all scoffed at me, telling me -in the kindest way possible- that demons were dumb brutes and that my idea was a waste of time. Well, all but Mael, who just gave me an apologetic smile.
But they weren't dumb brutes, and a treaty was possible.
So how would I get into contact with Meliodas? Well actually, that was easy, I just had to march into to the demon base and make a scene. The hard part was not giving him an opportunity to kill me before hearing me out.
I couldn't just try to fight him into submission, that was too risky. There had to be another way...
A crafty smile crossed my face as an idea came to me. It was a bit of a gamble, yes, but if it worked... Britannia would be at peace for the first time in its long, bloody history.