Sins and Virtue Chapter 4 Greed

Chapter 4 Greed

The Great Travel Turtle and Hawk’s mom both walked down the road, their massive forms making excellent time as they made their way towards the next town and further down the way was a large structure.

“So I’m going to guess that the large mushroom looking building is Baste Prison,” said Damian.

Merry nodded her head, “Yep, that’s it and just in front of it is Dalmary Town, we can rest up there and formulate a plan.”

Elizabeth tried using her hands and standing on her tippy toes to try and see Baste Prison, “Wow you guys can see that far away?”

“Not really, a bit of minor magic.” clarified Merry.

“I’m not using magic,” said Damian. “I always thought my eyesight was average.”

Merry looked somewhat surprised by that, “You don’t count as average.”

“But that is amazing you got great vision.” said Elizabeth before turning to see Meliodas, Diane and Hawk standing on Hawk’s mom. “Hey can you guys see the prison?”

“Somewhat, but it’s kind of hard.” said Meliodas as he was having a difficult time looking up as Diane was hugging him from behind and resting her chest on top of his head.

“Oh sorry captain,” said Diane as she loosened her grip slightly allowing him to see, “I was blinding you with my love.”

“Uh  huh,” Meliodas then looked over and saw the prison, “Oh there it is, it doesn’t look that heavily secure,  let’s find a place to park the shops and go save Ban.”

“You can see the security from here?” asked Elizabeth.

“Don’t think of him as average either,” said Merry before turning back to Meliodas, “Are you sure you want to go with the direct approach?”

“Why not, I’m sure me and Damian can handle anything they throw at us, if you girls want to stay here with Hawk.” said Meliodas.

“Hey why am I not going?” asked Hawk.

“Well, Hawk, can you actually fight?” asked Damian.

“Hey, I’ll have you know I am a mighty warrior.” said Hawk full of conviction but no one was buying it.

Meliodas decided to continue with his idea, “Well I just thought with Damian reflecting my counter the two of us could rush in, counter all of their attacks back at them, grab Ban and get out.”

Merry thought it over. “Not the dumbest strategy I’ve heard, but that’s barely a plan.” 

“How about we head into town first before we come up with a plan.” offered Elizabeth.

“Sounds good to me,” said Damian.

“That sounds amazing,” said Diane with stars in her eyes, “I’ve always wanted to go into town as the size of everyone else, oh, captain we can go on a date together.”

“Diane we’re on a rescue mission.” said Meliodas not at all interested in a date.

“Oh Ban can wait.” As Diane began rubbing her cheek on his head.

Meliodas sighed, “Let’s hurry and save Ban.”

~o~

Deep inside Baste Prison a group of knights sat in a room with two of them playing chess. A young knight knelt in front of them, “I have a report from the palace, we have confirmed that two sins were in the forest of white dreams and that the two of them are not traveling alone.”

“So the sins are coming are they,” said Fresia, a member of the Weird Fang group of Holy Knights, her armor was red with a giant spider-like helmet.

A knight in pale armor with horns on his helmet thought for a moment, “We should be ready for them when they arrive.” said Golgius as he moved his piece on the board.

The young knight looked at the two continue to play chess without being bothered, “Uh excuse me…”

“Don’t worry Jericho,” said Fresia, “This prison with the battle to come in mind, it’s a fortress that even the Seven Deadly Sins couldn’t break.”

“That’s right,” said a voice right behind Jericho, she had to turn to see the holy knight Ruin. “And don’t forget we the Weird Fang are here as well.”

“Of course not sir.” said Jericho slightly off put by Ruin's sudden appearance. 

“However, are we sure they will come?” asked the Holy Knight Jude, his black armor covered in spikes.

“They will without a doubt come.” A voice, all of the knights turned to the door where an older man stood tall, he was tall wearing a fancy brown coat and pants that had a style that showed he was a man of means, his clean cut gray beard and hair also showed his status, finishing his attire was a top hat on his head that he promptly removed from his head, “Greeting Weird Fang, it is an honor to meet such great Holy Knights.”

“Who are you, where did you come from?” asked Jericho as she reached for her blade.

“Stay your hand apprentice,” Ordered Ruin. “This is Lord Paddington.”

“Paddington as in the great Paddington noble family from the great coastal cities?” asked Jude.

“One and the same. Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Sherlin Paddington.” said the Man as he gave a slight bow, “I do apologize for my sudden visit, but on behalf of my brother the head of the Coastal knights, I’ve been asked to investigate a certain case and to do so I would like to speak with the Fox Sin of Greed Ban.”

“The Fox sin of greed?”

“Yes,” said Sherlin as he placed his hat back on his. “I was asked to find out what happened to some knights that went missing seven years ago and it seems they had a run in with the Fox sin right before you all caught him. It also seems that due to the current situation my time to get these answers might be running out soon.”

Jude stood up from his chair, “Do you believe we would let the Fox Sin of Greed escape.”

“No, but I do not take chances,” said Sherlin, “If there is even the slightest chance that they could escape and my investigation grinds to a halt then I will consider my time to complete my task to be running low. So I am here and I would like to see the Fox Sin of Greed.”

“Jude, take Lord Paddington to the prisoner.” Ordered Ruin.

Jude looked right at Ruin and for a moment everyone thought he would refuse the order, “Fine.” Said Jude as he walked towards the door, “Call me when the fight begins. Come Lord Paddington, I’ll show you where the prisoner is.”

Right after the two had left Fresia got something from one of her bugs, “It seems that the sins have arrived. One of my scouts has found them in the town, but something is off here.”

“What do you mean?” asked Golgius.

“Meliodas is there along with a few others, I don’t see any others from the sins, hang on, is that girl holding his arms Diane? No it can’t be, she’s supposed to be a giant.”

“I see then we’ll just have to flush them out to see how many opponents we’re dealing with,” said Ruin.

“Then I’ll take the first strike,” said Friesia as she cracked her whip. “I’ll weed out the sins.”

~o~

“Oh wow, it’s like being in a whole different world,” said Diane as she looked around town, with one arm still holding Meliodas’ arm. “No ones running away or screaming and I’m finally on a date with the captain.”

“Diane we’re not on a date,” stated Meliodas, “We got to save Ban.”

Damian just looked at Meliodas and Diane, Elizabeth seeing this had to ask, “Is something wrong Damian?”

“Uh it’s nothing,” he said quickly.

“Do you wish to be on a date with someone?” She asked.

Damian shook his head, “No, I doubt anyone would want to go on a date with me, I just never thought this is how two of the Seven Deadly Sins would act.”

Elizabeth gave Damian a sad look. “Damian, why would you say that?”

Damian shrugged, “Well I’ve been looking for the Seven Deadly Sins for a while, I guess I never thought that they would be like this.”

“I meant the first part,” Elizabeth started with a serious look, “Why are you so negative with yourself?”

Damian gave her a genuine look of confusion but before he could respond he felt something. 

Merry saw it first, “Guys the prison!”

They all looked up to see a dark cloud above the prison moving towards them, “Is that a rain cloud?” asked Hawk.

“No, those are….bugs?!” said Elizabeth.

“Not just any form of bugs, those are acid bugs.” Yelled Merry.

Diane then screamed, “I HATE BUGS!”

“Take cover.” yelled Meliodas as the bugs began raining down an acid spray over the town. “Everyone find Shelter!”

Elizabeth began to run away with Hawks and Merry with the latter putting up a small barrier covering them from the acid as they ran. “Damn Holy knight!” said Merry.

“A Holy Knight is doing this?” asked Hawk.

“Yeah, these bugs don’t work together like this and I can feel a magic connection between them,” said Merry, “No doubt about it, a Holy Knight is behind all of this.”

Elizabeth could only look around and see as the town was being melted away by the rain of acid from the swarm. “The Holy Knights are doing this…” Her horror was quickly taken over by anger, “How dare they, they are supposed to be protecting the people here, not burning the town. We have to stop them.”

“We will, but first you and Hawk need to take cover,” said Merry as she pointed to a small hole between two buildings for them to hide in, “Wait here while we deal with this.”

~o~

Meliodas dodged several drops of acid as he tried his best to take down as many bugs as possible, “There’s too many. Damian, can you take control over them and bring them down?”

“I’m sorry, I can’t. The caster is too far away.” said Damian as swatted a few bugs out of the air, “These bugs also don’t have a constant connection anyway. This is a bad matchup for me.”

“Shit!” said Meliodas as he quickly thought of something, “Diane, take them out.”

Diane hesitated for a moment before prepping her magic, “Okay for you captain anything.” She then raised her hand causing several small pillars to ground around them hitting only a few bugs. “Huh? Why is my attack so weak?”

“It’s because you're small,” said Merry as she rejoined them, “The bracelet I gave you shrunk you down along with your power, you need to grow big for your full power.”

“Why didn’t you say that earlier?!”

“Diane!” yelled Meliodas.

“I’m on it.” Diane then pressed the charm on the bracelet making her grow back to her regular size. “One more time.” She then raised her hand causing several large pillars to appear around town, slamming into the bugs killing them all instantly. “There we go, that’s what I wanted the first time.”

“Nice job, Diane,” said Meliodas.

“No problem captain,” said Diane with a wink before giving Merry a look, “I just wish someone had told me about this sooner.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t think we would be in a fight that quickly.” Apologized Merry. “I certainly wasn’t expecting them to attack while we were in town.” They all looked around the town and saw the destroyed and melted houses and they all could hear the screams from the panic townsfolk. “I thought they would wait to fight us after we left the town.”

“This is horrible,” Said Elizabeth as she looked at the destruction around them, “This is absolutely terrible. People lived here, this was someone's home, they were supposed to protect people, not to destroy their homes.” Elizabeth began to see just how cruel the Holy Knights were. “Merry, can you fix this with your magic?” Hoping her friend could fix this damage.

Merry sadly shook her head, “While I do have access to powerful magic, the damage done is acidic, if it was purely destructive I might have been able to repair or at least put the pieces back together but I can’t undo the melting damage. If I could I would but it would also run the risk of Dorf coming back and he would just wreck everything all over again.”

“Dorf is really holding you back.” said Meliodas.

“Tell me about it. All the power of Merlin and the second I even use a good fraction of that power, Dorf comes and cuts it off.”

“This is unacceptable.” stated Elizabeth with anger in her eyes, “The Holy Knights can’t justify this kind of force, innocent people got hurt and those who don’t may not have a home to go back to. These knights must be stopped. We are heading to Baste Prison and removing these knights from power, right now!”

~o~

“My my, it looks like we do have more to deal with than just the sins,” said Friesia as she and two other members of weird Fang looked down at the town from the hilltop.

“Indeed,” said Golgius, “While those rock pillars are clearly from the sin of Envy, there were two others with the sins that could fight, the one little witch girl that escorted the Princess from danger and the tall boy that was taking down a few of your bugs.”

“Oh I liked that boy,” said Friesia as she snapped her whip. “I would love to play with him some more.”

“No,” said Ruin, “Those two are most likely the ones we were warned about, the Seven Lively Virtues.”

“You’d think with a name like that they would be enemies of the Sins.” said Golgius.

“Indeed but we can guess they do have some strength amongst there numbers,” said Ruin, “Friesia, send one of your bugs to Jude, signal him to come here, we’ll cut them off as they make their way to the prison, separate them and take them down one by one.”

“Understood, one moment…what?” Friesia then focused her magic to see through one of her bugs. “What is going on?”

“What’s the matter, Friesia?”

“Jude is fighting someone.” 

~o~

“So who do you think is going to win?” asked a Guard.

“Don’t know to be honest,” said the other guard, “While there is the Weird Fang on one hand and just two members of the Seven Deadly Sins, you have that unknown factor of the other people traveling with the captain of the Seven Deadly Sins.”

“Who are they-”

“That’s awesome news.” Came a voice from inside the prison cell. “Sounds like it ought to be fun.”

The two guards immediately backed up as a footprint appeared on the solid metal door to the cell. The door then fell outward revealing a man with long white hair and a full beard with several metal stakes in his body and bleeding from several hole wounds. “The Fox Sin of Greed Ban!” yelled a guard, “How did you get out and why now?”

Ban reached down to one of the stakes, “Isn’t it obvious,” as he pulled out the metal from his body. “I kicked the door down, as for why, you said he was coming here, the captain.” 

“What’s going on over here?” The three of them looked over to see Jericho walking towards them, “Fox Sin Ban, I don’t know how you escaped your cell but you’ll return there right now if you know what's good for you.”

Ban just started to brush his beard with his hand, “How about some respect kid, is that anyway to talk to a hero?”

“Kid? I am an apprentice holyknight,” said Jericho, insulted, “That’s pretty disrespectful coming from a prison on death's door,” she turned to the other two guards. “Go and tell everyone that I had to execute the prisoner for attempting to escape.” The two guards saluted before leaving. Jericho reached for her sword before dashing forward at Ban and slashing him several times before stopping past him and sheathing her sword.

What Jericho was expecting was screams of agony or a dead body hitting the ground instead she began to hear laughter, “Do you think I had you take off too much.” asked Ban as he was now clean shaven and his hair was cut shorter. “Well it feels pretty good, so I think I’m okay with it. You got some real talent, as a barber.”

Jericho looked at him, not believing what she was seeing, “Impossible he dodged all of my attacks with those injuries?”

“Injuries?” asked Ban confused, he then showed his body, “What injuries.”

“Impossible, just minutes ago your body was pierced by several metal spikes.” said Jericho as she was trying to understand what she was seeing.

“There’s only one wound on me,” said Ban as he pointed to the scar on his neck, “I suppose you can say that wounds I get from that guy are a special case.”

Jericho summoned as much courage as she could and charged once more at Ban, “Die!” Ban easily and quickly caught her in mid air and pushed her against the wall, causing Jericho to drop her sword. “Just finish it.” as Jericho accepted her fate.

Ban slowly lowered her, “You know barber, that's a nice set of armor you go there but I just don’t think it’s your style.”

“Huh?” Jericho didn’t know what he meant but before she understood what happened, Ban removed her armor and clothing, leaving her in her pink underwear, “You BASTARD!” As she tried to cover herself as best she could.

“Thanks for the armor kid,” said Ban.

“Come now Ban, is that really necessary?”

Ban’s eyes went wide and dropped the armor and turned around quickly to see an old gentleman with a cane standing not too far away. ‘Where the hell did he come from.’

“Lord Paddington!” Yelled Jericho in shock as she saw the nobleman.

“Paddington?” repeated Ban, ‘That sounds somewhat familiar,’ thought Ban as he looked at the man, his eyes slowly falling on to the can he was holding that had an ornate owl at the head, ‘He’s got a nice cane though.’

“I don’t think stealing my cane would be a great way to start things off,” said Sherlin, shocking Ban. 

‘How’d he know I was going to steal his cane?’ Wondered Ban as he realized he was dealing with someone who wasn’t normal.

Sherlin tipped his hat and gave a small bow, “Allow me to introduce myself my name is Sherlin-”

“PADDINGTON!” Roaring an angry voice, everyone looked down the hall as Jude appeared from the ground, his armor dented and covered in dirt, “You backstabbing bastard!”

Sherlin calmly placed his hat back on his head and turned to Jude, “You know it’s rude to interrupt someone, especially when they are trying to introduce themself.” 

“Shut it you bastard!” yelled Jude as he slammed his spike shield on the ground, suddenly several thorns appeared out of the shadows and launched at Sherlin, “Shadow Thorns!”

Several thorns made of shadow launched down the hall at Sherlin, who didn’t panic or move much, he calmly shifted his body enough to dodge each thorn that would have hit him. The thorns hit the wall causing a cloud of dust to fill the hall. “Whoa, that’s a new one from Jude.” said Ban.

“What the hell is going on?” asked Jericho.

“No idea?” The dust began to settle revealing Sherlin was completely unharmed and with only a bit of dust on him, “Wow he dodged all of that, who is this guy?”

Sherlin cleared his throat, “Allow me to finish my introduction, I am one of the Seven Lively Virtues, the Owl Virtue of Chastity, Sherlin Paddington.”

“Chastity? The fuck?” 

“I don’t care who you are,” said Jude, “For attacking a Holy Knight, you are a traitor and your punishment is death.” Jude sent another volley of Shadow Thorns at Sherlin. Sherlin’s eyes glowed and he dashed forward dodging each and every single thorn before raising his cane and striking Jude. Jude screamed in pain as he fell to the ground, “How…..you’re not a holy knight.”

“Just because I’m not a holy knight, doesn’t mean I don’t know how to use magic,” said Sherlin as he pointed his cane at Jude, “My Insight, is better trained than your magic, reflect on it when you awaken. Unconscious Smite.” A silver light then fired from Sherlin’s cane and hit Jude, causing the Holy Knight to fall into a deep slumber.

“Couldn’t you have done that from the start?” asked Ban.

“I suppose so, but this isn’t how I wanted things to go.” said Sherlin with a sigh, “Come now Ban we should- we are you going?”

“Thanks for dealing with Jude but I need to find my captain.” said Ban, “Later.”

“That’s the wrong way.” stated Sherlin but Ban ignored him as he kept walking. Sherlin then soon followed, ‘Better keep an eye on him till everyone else arrives.’

~o~

“Whoa, slow down Elizabeth,” said Damian as he and others walked after Elizabeth who was marching at a steady pace towards Baste Prison. “Calm down.”

“I can’t,” said Elizabeth, “I can’t just stand by and let this keep happening, I had no idea the Holy Knights were abusing their power like this. Those people are now injured, homeless, both or worse.”

Damian then got in front of Elizabeth forcing her to stop, “Elizabeth, it is fantastic that you care so much but if you rush in there you’ll only get yourself hurt.”

“He’s right, Elizabeth.” said Diane who was bending over the two, “It’s great you want to help but you’re not a fighter, we’ll handle this, please stand back.”

“But..” Elizabeth wanted to argue more but couldn’t think or what to say. “Fine, but when this is over…Meliodas, Merry I have something to ask of you two but please go and stop the Holy Knights.”

Meliodas and Merry blinked and looked at each other for a moment before smiling, “Sure, whatever you need.” said Meliodas.

“I’ll be happy to help.” said Merry, suddenly a bell rang out around them. “Huh what was-HUH!?” Suddenly Merry was alone. “Where did everyone go?”

“I’m afraid they’re all gone.” As a holy knight appeared before her. “I am the Holy Knight Ruin, the leader of Weird Fang.”

Merry put up her hands ready to cast a spell. “I am the Witch Merry, the leader of the Seven Lively Virtues.” Merry then took a deep breath and put down her arms, “I won’t be your opponent.”

“What?” Ruin was confused.

“You put all of us in an illusion right,” Merry looked at Ruin, “Judging on how this form of yours hasn’t moved, I’m guessing I’m looking at Meliodas, who’s waiting for an attack to counter, that means you’ve put Diane and Damian in an illusion as well. I’ll give you ten more seconds before Damian caves your helmet in.”

“What?”

Damian jumped out of the way as Ruin slammed a massive fist down at him, “No you're not the holy knight, you’re Diane.” Damian closed his eyes and pointed in a direction, “That’s Elizabeth, Hawk is next to her, Meliodas and Merry are staring each other down. There you are.” Damian opened his eyes in time to dodge another attack from Diane before running off at top speed over a few hills to a back road where a man and his son were walking. Damian’s eyes narrowed his eyes on the boy who had a staff with a bell on it, “That’s it, the bell. You can’t fool me.”

Damian raised his fist and punched the boy hard enough to send him flying, the illusion faded and the boy turned into Ruin who landed on the ground staring at Damian, “Impossible!?”

Damian raised his hand showing the bell from Ruin’s staff, “Sorry but illusions don’t work on me.” He then tossed the bell aside and grabbed his sickle.

Back in the clearing Meliodas blinked, “Oh hey there Merry.” Meliodas looked around and saw that Damian and Diane were gone and Elizabeth and Hawk looked confused. “Let me guess, Damian found the illusion guy.”

“Most likely,” said Merry.

“That power of his is really handy.”

“What the heck is going on?” asked Hawk.

“You all started acting strange,” said Elizabeth, “Diane attacked Damian before running off and Diane chased after him.”

“We got put into an illusion but it looks like Damian has that one handled,” said Meliodas before narrowing his eyes and taking out his sword and slicing the air causing two throwing knives to hit the ground. “Looks like we got a fight ourselves.”

“Those were invisible,” said Merry as she looked around, “So we got a guy who can turn invisible and a caster who controls bugs, who do you want?”

“Oh that's a tough one, both sound annoying.” said Meliodas as he got ready for an annoying fight ahead.

Standing somewhere between the two fights stood Diane confused, “Where did everyone go and what happened to that Holy Knight I was chasing?”