Minerva walked through the halls of the border fortress. She had been seeking an audience with the Great Holy Knights of Liones for some time. After all, the enemy of her enemy was a useful ally. Her stumble as she suddenly felt the second mind from another world opening into her will caused the holy knights who were escorting her to stop and give her harsh, suspicious gazes.
She continued the rest of the way in a haze of confusion. She could remember two lives, and their intentions towards the Seven Deadly Sins were quite different. The Seven Deadly Sins had killed her kin. She knew the justifications. She knew in their place she’d have done the same. But she couldn’t forget that night from a little over a decade ago. Her father’s grand plans, and desire to take the top place in the world now that the world had lost its two great powers. If the Sins hadn’t stopped him, he’d have begun a mission of conquest which would have wiped out Liones just like it had already destroyed a human kingdom. One could claim justice had been on the side of the Sins. But it had still been her father. It had still been her kin. It had still seen the end of her clan save for one. She’d been still considered a child then, if on the cusp of adulthood. Too young to be expected to fight.
Now though she was an adult and her power vastly exceeded that of her father’s. Regardless of what Gelda said, she had been prepared to take her vengeance. It had never been a matter of justice, but of doing right by her kin.
Her other life added considerations to things though. Weland - that name felt so wrong for him - had been something like a father to her. He’d killed her biological father. But he’d done it for her. And it was easy to see the comparison between Jiemma and Izraf. The hate-filled souls of the dead Yakumo clan was another stark warning about the path she was taking, as was old Georg. She had seen how hatred and vengeance ate away at the one who gave their heart to it. And here she was walking straight towards doing just that.
She almost bolted. It’d be so easy to call up her territory and teleport away. But that wasn’t what she should do here. She had waited a long time for this chance, and even if she was having second thoughts about hunting the Seven Deadly Sins she should move forward with it. She remembered some of the tasks ahead of them - uplifting the Holy Knights, purifying the New Generation, and ensuring that the Great Holy Knights opened the seal on the 10 Commandments. Whether she wanted to seek vengeance or help Weland, her duty lay ahead.
Only one of the great holy knights was waiting to meet with her. His white hair seemed prematurely gray given the vigor and vitality of his frame; he wasn’t young, he’d been an established knight even when her clan was wiped out by the Deadly Sins, but he wasn’t old to the point of infirmity. He held himself even now like a warrior and one who had great experience in battle.
Minerva met the great holy knight’s gaze behind her helmet. He was judging her. That much was certain. “So you’re the Black Knight of Edinburgh I’ve heard of?”
Minerva answered with a mere nod. She’d made a name for herself staying in the destroyed kingdom of Edinburgh and challenging holy knights from other kingdoms who passed to close to duels. She had been seeking enough power to stand up against the Seven Sins, especially that man who was among them. Her strength had in truth blossomed, she had broken through to her true power, and in the last 3 years no duel had truly challenged her. Maybe this great holy knight would.
She had heard he was from the druid clan, a subsect of humans who had devoted themselves to the teachings of the goddess clan and possessed powers designed to combat her clan and its allies from the Great Holy War.
“We will need to hide your true identity for the time being,” he said. “While the king has supported outlawing the Seven Deadly Sins, your own reputation is not much better, and the rumors say that you are a not a human, but the last survivor of the clan that destroyed Edinburgh. I am certain you understand why that would make things problematic.”
Minerva nodded. It was a simple fact. Her clan had destroyed a kingdom overnight. And she was stronger now than the entire clan put together was then.
“And I will want some proof of your abilities.” He raised a hand and snapped metal clad fingers together, causing a knight to emerge from a shadowed alcove stepping forward and looking towards her. “Show that you can defeat him. Well outside. We wouldn’t want to damage the fort.”
“Wouldn’t fighting you be a better proof of my abilities?”
The great holy knight turned towards her. “It almost sounds like you’re an assassin.”
“If you’re scared of the Sins, then won’t it take someone who can make you scared to defeat them?”
The great holy knight scowled, his face twisting in a grimace. “Big words. Perhaps we should see if you can live up to them.”
“I’ll look forward to it,” Minerva’s hand moved to rest on the great, curved axe on her back.
“Let’s take this outside. If you can handle him maybe I’ll let you try me.”
Minerva hadn’t needed anything more than raw, physical power to deal with the holy knight. His innate magic power had allowed him to project the force of his blows in powerful destructive waves, enough to fell a forest. By the standards of Earthland they were dangerous blows - not up to the level of Diabolos but still dangerous - but this just made him a rather average holy knight.
Her armor had been sufficient to withstand a blow, and she had managed to close the gap and bring him down. Once he was on the ground he was done for. Her helmet fell in two pieces, freeing her long black hair, and showing the slight cut on her forehead from his attack already healed, as she looked at the great holy knight. “Care to try now yourself?”
She could feel the sunlight on her bare skin. It was an uncomfortable ache. It wasn’t unfamiliar, she had lived with it often in this life, and yet it was. In her other life she’d never felt it before and the two halves were still integrating in ways.
“You didn’t even draw your ax,” the great holy knight noted.
“Didn’t need it.”
“You might want to get it ready if you want me to show you just what sort of power you can expect.”
“Still confident? Let’s see how you do.”
It was daytime. Her power was half under the cruel reign of the sun. It wouldn’t matter. The great holy knight was fast. He just wasn’t fast enough. Her ax came up to block his sword, and she launched a powerful kick. He flew back, his own leap leading him to avoid the main force of the kick, but she could see on his face that he’d realized the force of her attack. He’d dodged the blow but the wind force had torn his cloak.
The white haired man’s cheek twitched, and Minerva pounced. He was on the defensive now, parrying and blocking with his sword as her sword came sweeping towards him. The smug, arrogance on his face wasn’t breaking. He was fighting a fight that seemed to be pushing him to his limits… but he didn’t use his magic power. Nor did he show signs of true worry. He was holding back.
He finally found a space to lunge with his sword. Minerva dodged, the blade scraping against the chest of her fullplate, and her free hand gripped his arm. He fell to the ground in an instant.
“So this is your magical power,” He noted, unable to rise from his knees. His strength had disappeared in an instant, and with it his ability to fight her. But she could feel something still lurking and hiding within him. A dangerous power which she couldn’t be certain to defeat.
“But you didn’t show me yours,” She noted.
“I doubt it would have worked on you,” he said through gritted teeth. “I have heard of the regenerative capabilities of the vampire princess.” He didn’t have the strength to support his own body, his head hanging down from his shoulders, where her hand lifted his upper body from the ground by one hand.
“Tell me, do you believe I can defeat that man?”
“... No. Not really.” Minerva clenched her teeth. “But perhaps you can become strong enough.”
Minerva had displayed her power to the Great Holy Knight, but that wasn’t enough to fully win his trust. While he’d made some oblique references to something which might give her the power to defeat that man he was not yet willing to provide it to her. For that she needed to earn his trust. And to earn his trust she needed to obey.
Weland hadn’t charged her with doing anything she was uncomfortable with. He’d told her to bolt for Camelot if she ever felt the need, and that he could find a way to deal with the demon blood himself whenever the time for it came. But she also knew that Weland wasn’t confident in his ability to control Selene’s little distortion-creating policy, and that the story of the world might already be winding out of control. Having someone who could keep an eye on the Great Holy Knights of Liones was going to be useful. And she was already positioned to do that.
If she could just earn their trust. She did not quite know how to do that. She was fairly certain that the Great Holy Knight Hendrickson didn’t even know what he wanted to do with her. She had met with him weeks ago, and in the more than a month since he’d merely sent her here and there to look for signs of the Seven Deadly Sins.
This time it was the Forest of White Dreams. It was a large expanse of woods dominated by white fog. Even experienced hunters avoided it as the woods seemed to lead those inside of them astray, and the so-called sixth sense of experienced Holy Knights failed them. There were rumors of dangerous monsters roaming it as well.
It was the perfect place for someone to hide out, and while Holy Knights had sought the Seven Sins within it before, it was entirely possible they had missed them. So Hendrickson had sent her there, to recheck the forest just in case one of the 5 unaccounted for Sins was hiding within it.
She had taken with her a set of iron spikes, which she had been driving into the ground to keep track of her movements. Her first day and a half of wandering hadn’t seen her come back upon them. But she had doubled back across her path. She was certain of that. A dragonslayer’snose was acute, and she could smell it when she passed over her own tracks.
Something, or someone, was removing the trail she was leaving behind herself. She just needed to catch them in the act. Her nose guided her back through the forest, even as the fog and its strange aura would have led others astray. There was a herd of boars in the act of covering up a hole they had dug where the stake had been, one boar wearing a harness of sorts with a bag full of the iron spikes.
She hefted her ax then and threw it, sending the great, heavy blade sailing through the air like a buzzsaw. One of the boars let out a cry and they began to run, but it hit across the bag on the one’s back, making the iron spikes spill out, even as Minerva rushed after it. The boar was running fast, but it wasn’t as fast as the - rather angry - holy knight. She grabbed her axe still running, and she tossed it again, blocking the boar’s retreat.
White smoke burst around it, and an armored fist lashed out from the cloud to strike at her. She dodged quickly, and found herself face to face with herself. The doppelganger threw its axe at her, and Minerva sidestepped casually. Another axe came flying and another, a whole host of her mirror images surrounding her.
Minerva lashed out. Her duplicates looked like her, and even moved similarly to her. But she quickly realized that, while they could copy the general flow of her movements, they could not copy the brutal strength or speed of them. Her fist struck a doppelganger, and it flew backwards, cracking a tree as it turned into what she assumed was its true form. It was a fat nosed, short, blue creature, reminiscent of a goblin.
The others changed in unison, reverting to their own natural shapes, as they scattered and ran. She managed to catch two, and rammed them so that their long, flowing, almost robe-like shirts were hanging on bare, dead branches of trees, holding them suspended below. It’d not hold them too long, but as she picked up her axe she trusted it’d be long enough.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“You were trying to interfere with my search. I want to know why,” She said, placing her axe against one’s face.
“I won’t tell you!” The creature screamed.
“You won’t? And what if I said I’d split your friend in two with my axe if you don’t?” Minerva’s axe cut the air next to the other goblin-like creature.
The creatures both squirmed, and trembled. “Don’t tell her!” The second said, leading to the first starting to nod its head.
“If you won’t I’ll kill you both, and then go about killing the rest of your kin until one of you does,” Minerva said in a cold blooded tone.
The imp swallowed. “She’ll hurt us if we tell you…” He claimed, and then he began to talk about the giant girl who they had sworn to hide and protect.
“Lead me to her.”
“Please forgive us, Lord Diane! She made us do it!” One of the two trickster imps screamed as they entered the clearing where the giant girl was lying.
The girl looked young. It wasn’t just her pigtails. She had a softness to her face and features reminiscent of a young teenager. She awoke in an instant at the scream, her bursting open as she rose. From the vision of an innocent child asleep without worries in the forest, was instead a terrifying image of a 30 ft tall giantess bellowing in anger, “What?”
The imps were obviously terrified, and Minerva could see why, as the giantess noticed her and lunged. Minerva leapt backwards, the wind force from the giant’s fist snapping branches from trees around her.
There wasn’t time for small talk, though, as the giant followed up the blow, forcing Minerva to dance backwards. She had been putting in work. Even if it was just shadow boxing she had begun to incorporate her skills from Earthland, with her simply faster and stronger body from Britannia. She was fairly certain Hendrickson was spying on her somehow, so she hadn’t dared attempt to incorporate her magic from Earthland. She didn’t want to give him any information about that which she could avoid. Even without it, though, her skills were not without their uses.
“Get out of here and don’t come back!” The giant’s scream was of secondary concern to her sweeping kick. There was no side stepping this, or hopping back.
Minerva bent over, her body folding 90 degrees backwards at the waist as the foot swept over her face. And then she was pulling up and lunging forward. As the giant’s foot came down, Minerva’s hand was striking the giant’s knee in an open palm thrust.
It was a blow to make the giantess’s knee buckle, and bring her down. Even on one knee she was still taller than Minerva herself, and still able to fight. Minerva’s finger nails extended from her hand, punching their way through the seems of her gauntlet as they stabbed into the giant’s flesh, and began to drain her blood.
Minerva’s magic was working with her vampiric feasting, draining the giant of her strength and power and sending it straight to Minerva. The giant’s hand came down, slamming from above, but Minerva caught it with her own, one arm raised towards heaven like an immovable rod, holding the giant’s massive fist up even as the transferred force cracked the ground beneath her.
Soon she was simply supporting the weight of the giantess, no more strength behind the blow. “Diane, the Serpent Sin o-” Minerva began to speak, only for the ground to erupt beneath her. A stone pillar had burst forth, launching her back. She spun in the air, moving with surprising grace given her full body armor, and landed on the upper limb of one of the trees of the forest.
The giant was forcing herself to her feet. She was unsteady. Between blood loss and the magical theft of her strength it was impressive that she could stand at all. Her dark brown hair framed her girlish face, her orange leotard not showing any damage from her rural lifestyle. Heavy arm bracers doubled as partial gauntlets. The look on her face and in her eyes was fierce and unsubdued, and she seemed a powerful foe, especially as she began to fire off her magical power in rapid succession. Sharp pillars of stone burst from the ground, forcing Minerva to jump from tree to tree till eventually she reached the ground.
The vampire princess was calm as she moved, though. She showed not a sign of doubt or concern. She had tasted the giant’s strength, and she knew how much of it was left. “Diane, Serpent’s Sin of Envy, you and your fellows slaughtered my clan,” She said, undeterred this time even as the ground began to swirl and spin around her, sucking her down into the dirt.
The giantess’s face twinged slightly with a look of question, and then possible recollection. “Yes. I am a vampire,” Minerva said, sinking unafraid into the sand. She tensed, moved, and leapt, launching out of it. “And I am here for my revenge.”
The giantess’s first response was to grab a fallen tree, but drained of her strength she could hardly lift it up much less throw it. As Minerva throw her great, broad headed axe down towards her, Diane’s arm rose. The axe hit the bracer and both shattered in a rain of metal fragments. But Diane’s arm and body had hardened into a solid metal of their own.
“The vampires killed the kingdom of Edinburgh and declared war on Liones!” The giantess seemed to think that was enough reason to justify the destruction of Minerva’s clan.
“They were still my family, and you killed them. This isn’t…” Minerva was approaching as she spoke, moving slowly and deliberately. Even when the ground rose up around her, hardening into a rocky coffin, she barely changed her pace, shattering the stone with sheer, brute strength. “... about justice. This is about…” A pillar of stone rose up behind her, hitting her in the back, and merely propelling her half a step forward before she jumped upwards, fist balled for a strike. “Vengeance.”
Diane’s other bracer cracked and shattered, as her arm blocked the blow, the giant hardening to steel again. Minerva had been aiming for her diaphragm, not a lethal blow, but hopefully one that would fell the giant. She had to commend her for still standing after her strength had been drained from her. The giantess should have gone down just from the feeding. She shouldn’t have been conscious any more. Minerva had tasted - and stolen - her strength. She knew the giantess’s physical limits. She should be down.
“Not yet. Captain still might need me,” Diane spoke as if by sheer force of will she could win the battle, her iron fist a flash.
Minerva moved fast, dodging a flurry of blows, before finding an opportunity and hitting the giant’s ankle and sweeping it out from under her. “Weak as you are? I doubt it.” She finished with a kick to the falling giant’s chin. The metal of the giant’s form hurt to hit, sending a numbing shock up through Minerva’s body, and Diane wasn’t going down easily, struggling and fighting to rise. But each blow had stolen a portion of her strength, and now Minerva unleashed, blow after blow knocking the giantess and pushing her back until finally one left her on the ground unable to rise for the time being, her strength completely drained, and her spirit no longer enough to force herself to remain conscious.
Then she looked about her. The forest was still standing, though it looked like a tornado had touched down on it with the way they had cleared a portion of it. As far as the mist allowed her to see - and further still - there was not a tree standing.
This was a problem. She’d hoped she could report she hadn’t seen anything. She hadn’t intended to bring back a captured Sin. One was already captured in Liones’s elite prison of Baste. She’d seen how they were treating the Fox’s Sin of Greed. It wasn’t a fate she’d wish on her enemies. And she’d seen the way some of the guards had looked at her. She’d not want to put a woman in their clutches even if that woman was a giant. She’d told Diane it was vengeance, and Minerva couldn’t lie to herself that she didn’t want vengeance, she’d not have fought like she did if she hadn’t wanted to thrash the woman for what she’d done all those years ago. But it was one thing to want to beat a woman. It was another to be willing to lock her in a hell hole where she’d be starved, and kept impaled to the wall. Even if she was willing to do that, she was pretty sure it would throw a wrench in Weland’s plans.
She looked around at the fog and mist. Was Hendrickson watching? Could he even observe her here? It mattered how he was watching her.
She took a chance and reached out through the Archive link she held with Weland. It was something to allow her mind to touch his across a distance and communicate. She needed to ask his advice on what to do with the unconscious Sin at her feet.
Just in case she was being watched she made a show of looking around the area as if she couldn’t remember - in the destruction of the battle - which way she had come. She hoped they couldn’t somehow detect or tap the Archive link, but Weland was more than good with his magic and Archive was at its heart magic to control the flow of information. She trusted that he could keep it safe from spying.
After a minute or so she walked over to Diane. It was just as she was leaning down to lift the giantess that she felt the impact against the side of her ribs. The force of the blow sent her flying into, and further shattering as she passed through, multiple of the fallen trees.
She managed to catch herself with a hand, fingers digging into a rock as she stopped her flight. She could see the blonde haired woman who had attacked her. She was holding a bizarrely long flail. It had a bone handle made for one hand to hold it, before a long, whip-like length of chain, ending in a large metal head covered with spikes.
Minerva’s vampiric regeneration was fixing the wound to the side of her chest within moments, but her eyes were on the woman. She recognized them, but she could hope that any spies wouldn’t recognize Selene. She intended to make this look good. And given the way that flail-whip was moving, Selene did too.
It crashed towards her, forcing her to bend at an inhuman angle to dodge its sweep, before it showered her in dirt. It came sweeping again, hitting her leg and sweeping it out from under her. And then it came down onto her, hitting into her chest. It was on the third, rib shattering, blow that she managed to catch it.
The flail-whip recognized her. She could feel it. Weland’s magic at work. It was made for her. Even holding it backwards she could feel it channeling and strengthening her magic as it passed through it, and feel Selene’s strength flowing into her. She spun, swinging the dragon god through the air, and she felt the length of the chain grow at her command, even while Selene began to crash through the tree at the edge of the field of destruction from her battle with Diane.
Eventually Selene let go, and Minerva pulled the flail-whip, Rabbit Killer as Weland had called it, to her. She took it in hand properly just in time to see Selene rise up in her full draconic power, the Moon Dragon God having shed her guise of humanity and revelling in her dragon form in full.
Minerva knew she needed to lose here… But she wanted to see how far she could go first. There was only one way it would end, though. Eventually, Selene’s moon-yellow flames surrounded her and she fell amidst them, and when she rose Diane and Selene were gone.
When Minerva emerged from the forest she saw both of Liones’s Great Holy Knights, and many other Holy Knights, mustering outside of it. Even Liones’s court mage was there. Selene’s power had been felt and noticed across the kingdom, causing stirrings and mutterings about how this might be the start of the prophesied Holy War. And Minerva was certain that fact was going to cause some distortions.
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Weland looked at the unconscious giantess. Things had begun going well. Merlin had warmed up to him somewhat after the killer rabbit incident. She’d helped him make Rabbit Killer; he’d even picked up some magic from her, and books to help him self-study. He was still cautious of her; long-term he was fairly certain their plans conflicted, and he couldn’t actually remember how noble vs villainous her intentions were with Arthur and Chaos; of course the truth of that probably was in the sequel but he had - unfortunately - never read it.
As the second month had approached its end things had looked pretty good. Minerva was spying on Hendrickson. Selene wasn’t attempting to cause chaos. Merlin was trying to spy on him less. The random enemies that seemed to be popping up like flies hadn’t pushed him again like the killer rabbit. He hadn’t figured out for sure how to uplift the Holy Knights, and he didn’t have access to the demon blood making the new generation to fix that, but things seemed to be on track.
And then Minerva let him know that Hendrickson had sent her on a Sin hunt which had borne fruit and she thought he was spying on her. And now the giant girl… Diane if he recalled correctly… was unconscious in front of him a few miles away from Camelot where Selene had delivered her.
If he remembered right Diane was the first Sin to meet up with Meliodas before Ban, King, the androgynous doll, Merlin, and last but not least the best one. Most likely she had met Meliodas in the forest that Minerva had found her in. And now Holy Knights were likely crawling over it. Even if they weren’t if he just delivered Diane back without talking to her first, she’d bolt because it is obviously compromised as a hide out.
Which meant he’d need to talk to her. He did not want to talk to an angry giantess waking up from being beaten unconscious.
Selene was looking at her. “So, I can replace her memory of Minerva with a terrible tornado touching down, and we put her back in the forest. Maybe give it a day or two to let any searches die down? Though how do we hide her from Merlin if we go that route?” She wasn’t speaking out loud but communicating through his Archive link. It was a reminder of just how utterly terrifying the magic she’d picked up here really was. It was a magic that could hijack minds and bodies, or modify memory. It was possibly the most scary magic available, even if lacking in a fast paced combat due to its nature as a ‘long ranged’ magic, and one which made him consider purchasing the giant perk Elephantine Memory just to make certain Selene wasn’t using it on him.
Though that was a thought that always left him feeling guilty. They needed to be able to trust each other, and she did deserve his trust.
Weland stared at her, jaw a little agape. It felt wrong to mess with someone’s memories like this, but it kept things on track and undistorted. “... Wait… but that will help prevent distortions,” He said.
“If we create a distortion now don’t we just risk the demons remaining sealed? You don’t plant new crops before you harvest your old…” She wrinkled her nose at that. Weland was getting better with his fairy ability to hear the heart and while it wasn’t full fledged mind reading he could tell the gist of the feeling - that was something her human life from this world would say more than who she had been. It worried her. Weland didn’t know what to say that would help her there. He just took her hand and gave a soft squeeze.
“I mean if you think we can create a more favorable situation by keeping her here and showing her to Merlin I am listening,” Selene continued.
Weland paused. There was the safe route. Put her back, and let events continue unchanged. It’d make certain that all the pieces fell into proper place. Then there was the dangerous route. He could take Diane to Merlin, confess to having saved her from one of Hendrickson’s holy knights, and use her to help galvanize Camelot, and take an active hand himself in recruiting the Sins. It’d let him ingratiate himself with them.
He’d played it safe for the last decade. Or had he? He’d messed up the timeline immediately on encountering the Oracion Seis. And then he’d dealt with Hades. He’d changed it heavily.
But it had produced results. Edolas had been prospering when he’d left, entering a magical renaissance. Alvarez had been on a good track. And from a selfish point of view the amount of points that he’d gotten, Minerva’s growth, and Selene’s presence beside him. It was all because he upset the apple cart of the world.
Selene couldn’t hear the voice of his heart, but the smile on her face told him she knew his answer.
“If worst comes to worst, I’m sure we can find a way to unseal the Demon Clan ourselves,” She stated through the Archive link. They were going to roll the dice of distortion and see what they forged from it.
“In that case I’d like you to enter her memories. It’s been a long time since I read the manga, but…”