Unexpected Opponents

Gelda's able to turn a fire attack back on one of the hooded figures with her fire tornado ball. While the fire mage uses his defensive shield, he's still knocked off his feet. The other person uses Earth rock magic to seal Gelda inside, but she manages to teleport away and sneaks up behind him. She bits him around the neck, not injecting any vemon into him and taking just enough blood for him to faint. The flame mage freaks out and throws another fire ball towards the vampire, but the old lady throws what looks like crystals at the fire which neutralizes it. Gelda approaches him, showing her fangs dripping with blood. He shivers with fear, quickly takes out a tube bottle, and drops it in front of himself and his partner. Orange smoke with magic sparks engulfs them, causing the ladies to cough. When the smoke clears, the red-hooded mages have disappeared.

Gelda looks at the old lady, she says something in words that the vampire doesn't understand. Gelda tries asking her for help, but it quickly becomes apparent that they don't understand each other's words. Desperate, Gelda uses her body language hoping to get the situation across. She holds up two fingers, makes the symptoms they are suffering with (some of her coughs are real, as are her chills and flushed look), and points towards the caves. The old lady starts brewing something with ingredients she's carrying, and soon hands a cup of what smells like herbal tea to Gelda.

Back in the cave, King works tirelessly to keep the fire going. He flops down exhausted and tries to drink some hot meat broth since he's unable to grow herbs to make tea. He stares at Merlin, whose laying down facing the other way. She's been silent for a while.

"I've got some broth for you. You need to get something into your system."

Merlin just groins and curls up even more. King sits down next to her, feeling awkward. He's been holding a grudge against the boar sin for 9 months, now he forces himself to talk.

"Merlin, I need answers. Does this so-called sister of yours have anything to do with you lying, deceiving, using and betraying us? I mean, I thought you did it all for selfish reasons, but if you did it to help or to save your sister, I'd understand. I mean that doesn't excuse your actions, but I've done many questionable and maybe unnecessary things myself to save those I love. We all have, the Seven Deadly Sins. Is that it, Merlin?"

She doesn't answer, instead she's gasping for breath. King looks her over, she's barely breathing, and her vital signs are dropping. She's sweating really bad and is suffering from chills along with a very high fever. Without her magic, Merlin functions like an ordinary human.

"MERLIN! No! Wake up! You must stay awake!" King shakes her and attempts to get her to swallow some broth to no avail. Again, he attempts to grow a plant inside the cave in hopes of making tea, but he can barely get anything to spout. He moves Merlin closer to the dwindling fire and takes off his coat to wrap around her, as well as part of their tent. King can barely function himself, using every ounce of strength he can muster to fight his own increasing symptoms. Suddenly, he can make out a very unwelcomed, rotten smell.

"Oh no don't tell me." A large rock is thrown at the fairy, just barely dodging it. The monster's roar is deafening. He shows his ugly, hairy, sweating self, his yellow eyes just staring at the Sins. He's also blocking their only exit, that they know of.

"Leave us along you monster! We haven't done anything to you. Isn't your home two caves down? We're not bothering you."

The Yeti roars angerly, showing his large, sharp teeth and drooling. King tries using several Chastiefol forms, including sunflower and guardian, but the monster returns each time. When the yeti returns for the 7th time, King's so low on power and strength, as well as sick, he can no longer get his sacred treasure to transform. He resorts to picking up Chastiefol to use manually. Yeti easily disarms King and attacks with his claw, leaving large, bloody scratches across the Fairy King's face and upper left arm. A flash of light hits the yeti, sending him through the wall into the next cave. Merlin is just conscious enough and uses the last of her strength to help King, then passes out again.

"Merlin! No no hang in there. Just keep fighting a little longer."

The monster comes back, throwing rocks again, when a voice out of nowhere calls out. The Yeti responds, Gelda has returned to the with the old lady. The woman signals with her finger for the monster to come, he does. She then speaks to him in a foreign language, seemly scolding the monster, then she gently pats his head, and he leaves, heading back towards his own cave.

King's jaw drops, he can't believe what he's just seen, then he collapses. The old woman checks both King and Merlin, including taking their temperatures. Gelda has to explain that she saved this woman and that the medicated tea she gave her is already easing her symptoms. King's reluctant, but does except the tea, drinking it very slowly. Gelda holds up Merlin as the woman carefully pours the tea into her mouth. She also has some sweet-smelling water that she rubs across both of their foreheads. She then takes out what looks little a flying rug. She gets on it and signals for them to get on as well. Gelda puts Merlin on the rug and follows the old woman with King in tow.

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Nuri is battling not one, but two red-hooded mages. Although they are strong and she's "weak", she still easily out matches both of them. The sand magic mage, who's controlling the dust storm, is unable to throw her off nor put out even her weakest flames. The stone mage throws his strongest spell at her, a stone giant, but she obliterates it. The two then combined their spells, the dust storm easing in the process, but they're still no match for her. The two mages quickly retreat underground courtesy of the sand mage's magic.

"So, she's supposed to be weakened? That sure doesn't seem like weak to me."

"If this is what she's like after being away from lava for six weeks, I don't want to see her at her strongest."

"She did that so she'd be weak enough to enter Britannia and not destroy the island. We need backup. Where are those slow pokes? Are they still toying with those other two?"

"Guess this is what we get for being impatient and cocky. You know it's strange that I didn't feel the gravity guy's usual aura. Did he learn a new power or something?"

Suddenly a ton of ash fills their hiding place, and it crumbles. Nuri stares at them with her eyes glowing fire.

The dust storm has eased up, Willie emerges from being buried underneath the sand. He gives a few coughs, catches his breath, then checks on Meliodas.

"Meliodas, are you alright?"

Meliodas rises from the sand, coughing and sneezing heavily. He's got sand caught in his throat, lungs, and up his nose, barely breathing. Willie tries to help him by hitting the right spot of the demon's back as hard as he can. Meliodas had failed to wrap the cloak around himself properly, so it blew away. He also failed to cover his eyes and mouth. He can't see as his eyes are also filled with sand. It takes several minutes before he can finally talk.

"I can't see;" the dragon sin says rubbing his eyes.

"Don't do that;" Willie tries to press Meliodas's arm down; "You'll damage your eyes rubbing them. Let the tears wash the sand out. Here, gently rinsing them out with water will also help."

Meliodas allows tears to form, then gently rinses out his eyes. "I've never even seen a dust storm like that in Purgatory."

"They're very common in deserts, especially in the Sahara, but that one felt unusually strong, even for here. I wonder if magic was involved."

"Could be." Meliodas coughs and sneezes really badly; "Man, that hurt."

"Meliodas, it doesn't look like your skin took any damage from the sand particles, but believe me, your skin is 'really' red especially your back, face, and arms. You need to cover up, I'm serious."

Meliodas cringes. He can barely open his eyes to look, but he can feel pain on his back and face. Still, he refuses, figuring that he's made it this long, he might as well tough this sun and heat out until they teleport to wherever Willie said.

Suddenly, Meliodas feels his energy draining from him, rapidly. "What's happening? I feel so, weak."

The dragon sin's voice grows weaker. Willie too realizes that he's getting weak. "What? Feels like I'm being drained." The monk tries to move and realizes the something's got a hold of him. His ankles and wrists are wrapped in glowing vines! Meliodas is covered in lots more vines. He rips them apart, but they keep grabbing him, over and over again.

"Where are these vines coming from?"

They are suddenly enclosed in a giant case of titanium steel. Two red-hooded figures emerge, one whipping his hands.

"That should do it. My special titanium steel will keep his gravity powers neutralize. Let's go find the others."

"I'm worried;" said the female; "That didn't look like the gravity guy. I mean he was shirtless and had blond hair, and muscles. His aura felt different, too."

They feel a strange energy coming from the titanium steel case. It shakes and suddenly explodes, the hooded duo using their defense powers to shield themselves. Meliodas emerges in his demon form, glowing in black flames, his coal black eyes looking straight at them.

"A DEMON!" Steel guy takes out holy water and a blessed crucifix. Vine lady slaps him on the back of the head.

"Not that kind of demon! He's a humanoid demon."

"Well then, this will be more fun than I thought;" Steel guy sends several giant balls of steel towards Meliodas, who easily smashes them. "WHAT?!" He creates a titanium cage infused with vine lady's vines, then she sends regular vines to weaken Meliodas, but his power level has skyrocketed. He smashes the cage with little effort, and leaps in front of them.

"You two aren't trying to hurt my new pal, are we?"

They didn't understand Meliodas, they don't need to. "Where's the demon slayer?" ask steel guy as Meliodas picks them both up.

"She's in Japan!" Vine lady tries to wrap Meliodas again, but it's no good; "Where's Mister Anti-Magic?" They get tossed into the air, sending them several miles away. "That's what you get for trying to hurt my friends!" Suddenly Meliodas is hit from behind with an even blacker energy blade, leaving a large bloody gash in his back.

"MELIODAS!" Willie tries to gather his strength to get up. Behind Meliodas stands huge, extremely beefy man about 8-feet tall with yellow skin. Meliodas turns and swings an enchanted hellblaze energy sword. The man, using a skinny, unusual looking sword (katana), easily cuts through his dark energy and leaves another large gash across the sin's chest. "An anti-magic user!" Willie throws his threads to grab Meliodas, only for them to be burnt up by anti-magic. His demon power fading, Meliodas can only roll out of the way as Mr. Anti-Magic attempts to slash him. He and Willie can feel the mana of the two mages returning to the spot on some kind of steel flying bird.

"About time he showed up;" says vine lady. They can hear and see a blast in the distance; "What? Those morons! We were all supposed to attack her at the same time!" A lava blast spurs into the air, landing on the steel bird. Nuri, completely engulfed in lava flames, has trapped their comrades in pyroclastic ash cast. She throws them at their companions and melts the steel, resulting in a hard landing for the red-hooded mages. As the steel and vine mages work to free their comrades, Nuri gets in between Mr. Anti-Magic and Meliodas. She barely holds off the attack. Normally she can go toe and toe with someone like him, but in her weakened state, she has to outwit him. She manages to get him to follow her, then pretends she's hurt, grabbing the side of her stomach and falling to her knees. He comes after her, only to fall down a sand sink hole right in front of her. She quickly dashes for the badly hurt Meliodas. Having no other choice, she engulfs a knife with her own anti-magic and supernatural energy and stabs the dragon sin the chest, which counteracts and neutralizes the anti-matter within him, as well as stopping the bleeding. Meliodas opens his eyes to look at her, but he's blinded by sand and blood. He thinks he hears Nuri say the words; "Forgive me"; then he blacks out. The vulacish has knocked him unconscious with her own fist.

Willie, having to muster up whatever strength he has left, runs over to them; "Nuri, what are doing..." He also gets sucker punched by her. She then quickly goes through Willie's satchel as Mr. Anti-Matter crashes to the surface and the mages have almost freed their comrades. In the blink of an eye, she slips the stone into the bag, finds the transport salt and pours what's left of it into an incomplete circle around the guys. The full moon hovers above them, but it's still only mid-afternoon. Non-the-less, Nuri chants the magic words as an anti-magic blade hits her from behind but allowing the vortex to shallow up Willie and Meliodas at the last possible second.

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In Britannia, Gowther successfully trapped a few mages with nightmare terror, but his own spell gets turned back on him when a mirror appears in front of him as he cast it again. Gowther gets caught in an illusion and while not trapped in a nightmare so to speak, his sense of reality is mixed up, and he actually cast a spell on Gilthunder, thinking he was one of the red-hooded mages. Gilthunder was surprised at how strong some of these mages were, but in his mind, he now sees the hooded ones as people he knows, including Margaret, Barta, Howser, Gilmore, and Meliodas among others. Gilthunder's confused but lays down his sword reluctant to hurt them. The mirror mage blast those trapped by Nightmare Terror to wake them up. They discuss how the dirt at Scotia's grave seemed to be freshly dug, then put back, as well as the missing stone. They had been informed that the Egyptians weren't arriving until later the next day, and the team in Egypt was supposed to capture them before they left. Now what do they do?

In a desperate move, Margaret runs to Gilthunder and kisses her beloved, which snaps him out of his trance. Gowther also sorts himself out and snaps back to reality, apologizing to the holy knight. One of the mages amines for Margaret, Gilthunder successfully turns the blast back on him. However, the others now attack, the mirror mage's mirrors prevent Gowther from casting any more mental spells. The hooded mages then get attacked from behind. Howser, Jericho, Gulia, and Graimore have arrived. Veronica jumps in front of her sister, clearly a little battle weary, but proudly tells Margaret that she took out two Vikings by herself (although they were actually lost, having been pulled off their course by a full force from the whirlpool created by Herman, and just wanted to return to Norway. The holy knights made sure they went well away from the shores) Veronica eagerly rushes into the battle, but is easily taken down, forcing Graimore to protect her and Margaret with his defensive wall. Gowther comes up with a plan for the knights to distract the hooded mages. Then he uses his sacred treasure, Herritt, circling around all the mirrors and hitting the mages from behind, rewriting their orders in their minds that they all must return to the portal. They all do, and the knights, along with Gowther, combined their powers to collapse the portal.

"Was that all of them?" ask Howser.

"I'm not picking up anybody else;" informs Gowther; "I believe that's all of them."

"What was all that about?" ask Jericho; "Who were those people? What were they doing here? I couldn't understand a word they said."

"I peeked into their memoirs;" informs Gowther; "unfortunately, none of them knew our language. I heard some Latin in there, but mostly they were thinking in a language, or languages that I've never heard before. I think I caught some Greek words in there. I can read Greek and Latin, but I've never actually heard any spoken Greek and know only a little of spoken Latin from priests in the churches..."

"Enough with the language info Gowther please;" says Howser; "Did you get any information from them?"

"I understood some, in fragments. Let's head back to Avalon while I explain."

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Ban and Zeldris take a rest on the wall again looking at the waves. It's only been 2 and a half hours, but the girls have already worn them out. Getting them down for naps wasn't easy.

"Maybe I shouldn't have let them have cake after lunch;" says Ban.

"Scout's note did say no sugar before naps. I guess children really do need routines and structure."

"Not too strict;" says Ban; "but a good balance."

"When are the older girls due back again?"

"I think they're already out of school. But they were supposed to go to the market. Oh yeah, Jaz said they tend to take they're time coming home because they like to play after school."

Zel looks down; "Play. That's something I never got to do. Meliodas, that's all he ever did."

"You're not alone there;" adds Ban; "I never got to play because I was always just trying to survive and avoiding my old man."

Mt. Vesuvius continues to rumble, spouing lava and ash clouds from its crater. They can see lava flowing down the side of the mountain.

"That stuff won't reach all the way here, will it?" ask Ban.

Zel shrugs his shoulders; "How would I know?" He can feel really intense living energies a few miles away, even unleashing. Some seems to be coming from the water. "Jaz and Scout have been gone for a while now. I wonder if they're both in a fight. They're energies are difficult to pick up unless they are up-close. They're powers don't even feel like magic. It feels, even higher, almost supernatural."

"I can't even feel they're energy;" says Ban. "Speaking of Scout, does she even talk?"

"I haven't heard her talk;" replies Zeldris; "It's obvious that she understands our language and can write it. She understands the native language around here too. Actually, she kind of creeps me out. I mean I have the feeling she keeps looking at me. I haven't caught her looking, but I swear she is. I don't know why, but I feel there's some sort of connection with her. Does she even have boobs?"

Zeldris slaps his palm over his mouth. Ban smirks. "You are getting comfortable around me. I'd say we're bonding."

Zeldris clears his throat; "Yea right. Like I'd ever be friends with an ale head like you."

"You know your brother drinks barrels more than I can and parties even harder;" Ban smiles.

"He's a seven-heart demon with a ridiculously high metabolism, that's why."

"Even before the curses where broke."

They feel something on the beach. "Ban, is that a portal?"

"Maybe somebody has found us."

They are surprised at what jumps out of the portal, a pack of, giant sheep? And giant wasps.

"Sheep? And...wasps?" asks Ban.

"Those aren't ordinary sheep, or wasps. They feel like their...demons?"

Behind them emerges a tall figure in a red-hooded cloak.

"That's not," says a wide-eyed Zeldris; "It feels similar, but that's not a demon from my clan."

The figure looks up at them and removes their hood. It looks like a woman with loose, shoulder-length jet black hair and big green eyes. She stares at them for a few seconds, raises her arms, then drops them as in a command. The sheep launch forward but are easily taken out by the men.

"Are you kidding me?" says Ban; "These sheep are nothing, even if they are twice the size of normal ones."

The woman's eyes start to glow, and the sheep shed their wool, giving way to wolves. The wasps also attack. Ban's scared treasure is inside the church, so he can only fight manually. Zeldris uses his hellblaze powers, but the wasps only seem to regenerate and multiply. They also discover that the wasps lack hearts. The wolves are three times stronger than the sheep, but the guys can still outmatch them. Elizabeth also arrives and she's able to kill off some of the wasps. As they unleased their magic, however, something unexpected happens. The wolves start absorbing the trio's magic, or literally, eating their magic. The red cloaked woman starts to glow, then she charges forward, punching everybody with magically enhanced punches. The more power they unleash, the more powerful the woman seems to be getting. Zeldris tries to pin her and the still arriving wolves and wasp with Ominous Nebula. She in turned summons a much larger wolf, as tall as the church building, and eats up the nebula. The woman's now strong enough to punch all of them out with a single punch, even Ban.

The beasts race for the church, but an invisible barrier prevents them from entering. The woman keeps absorbing surrounding mana and punches the barrier. Hawk and Wild arrive outside. Wild fights some of the wolves and Hawk jumps on top of a wasp, grabbing a piece of its wing and eating it. "Transpork." Hawk turns into an obese wasps and flies, somewhat clumsily and not very high. "Let's see how you like your own venom." Hawk shoots slimly venom at several wasps. While it doesn't necessarily harm them, it gets into their eyes and mouths, distracting them, as well as their wings, making it harder for them to fly. Hawk has an opening to get to his friends, with sacred treasures Lostvayne and Courechouse in tow.

The woman punches all over the barrier looking for a weak spot, as the wolf can't seem to eat it. The young girls are safe inside still taking their naps. As she's distracted, Ban ambushes her and strikes her with Courechouse. He's already taken care of the remaining wasps. Elizabeth wills Lostvayne herself and infuses it with her magic, taking out the 'smaller' wolves, which turned out to be an extension of the cloaked woman herself. Only the giant wolf remains. Elizabeth acts as bait while Zeldris slices the wolf from behind. The woman, know powerless and covered in deep, bleeding cuts, opens a portal and high tails it out of there.

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Several miles away in the woods surrounding Mt. Vesuvius, another woman with platinum blond hair, pinkish skin and long, pointed ears, collapses and tries to catch her breath. She's covered in volcanic ash and her clothes are burned and tattered, plus she's covered in sinched burns.

"She's a lot stronger than I remember;" she says in a strange language; "and I underestimated her smarts, again."

Noise comes from the woods, and the demon wolf woman joins her.

"What are you doing here?" asked the elf; "You're supposed to take those girls hostage and search the church."

"I wasn't able to break the barrier;" wolf girl explains; "And their babysitters sure did pack a wallop."

"Don't tell me that old priest and grandma beat you. "They don't even have any powers!"

"It wasn't them. It was three people I've never seen before. I know the churches here are known for their generosity and hospitality, but that was ridiculous. Although they did supply me with much delicious mana, they still beat me."

"How could that happen? You almost never get beat."

A third lady joins the party, dripping wet and wearing a much darker red cloak.

"We've been waiting for you;" growls the elf; "Hurry up and fix our clothes, I'm freezing."

"How?" ask wolf-demon; "It's 80 degrees out here."

"77!"

"Quite;" says the wet girl; "We've got a problem. She's alive."