Charles's sensing was right—Vaizel was already a boiling mess.
At the same time he detected the fight on Stella's side, the Fighting Festival had also reached its most intense stage.
This time Diane hadn't shrunk because of the Timid Mushroom to enter the festival, so Meliodas and Ban made it smoothly into the finals.
Although there were plenty of entrants, those who actually had magic were few and far between. After all, in the Kingdom of Liones, anyone with a bit of strength became a Holy Knight.
Even so, this year's festival was unusual: besides Meliodas and Ban, several Holy Knights had entered as well.
Two of them were Liones's Hauser and Griamore.
Hauser was the classic hot-blooded knucklehead. He spotted countless openings in Meliodas and Ban, yet let them go just because they were using fake names.
Griamore, on the other hand, was here escorting Liones's second princess, Veronica.
During the Holy Knights' rebellion, the king and the first princess, Margaret, were imprisoned, while the third princess, Elizabeth, fled.
Veronica had avoided that fate only because she wasn't in the Capital when the rebellion broke out. When she returned, all she heard were claims that the third princess, Elizabeth, had colluded with the great sinners, the Seven Deadly Sins, to overthrow the kingdom.
Naturally, Veronica didn't believe such nonsense. But the situation in the Capital was complicated. To learn the truth and to protect her younger sister, Veronica came here with her bodyguard, Griamore.
Things among the Holy Knights were quite tangled now; differences between the two Great Holy Knights had split them into the New Generation and the Old Generation.
Within the New Generation were those frantically increasing their own power. Among the Old, some, ignorant of the truth, simply obeyed orders, while others were filled with unease about the current state of affairs.
The reason Charles said Vaizel's situation was complicated was because representatives of almost every side had converged here.
The Sins' primary enemies were, of course, the New Generation Holy Knights, and besides Guila and Jericho, others of the New Generation were also in motion.
The shorty who'd been acting as the Fighting Festival's referee revealed his true face after Meliodas won—it was the Holy Knight Helbram.
Helbram showed a level far above the rest, and with the cover of another Holy Knight using gravity magic, he alone suppressed Ban and Meliodas.
Even when King arrived shortly after, it didn't change the tide.
When Charles got there, what he saw was a battered King facing off against a middle-aged man in golden armor, while Meliodas and Ban lay off to the side.
The short staff Charles had made for Meliodas had been cut in two, and the leather jacket Ban had just swiped was in tatters.
Charles looked at the one-eyed-uncle guise Helbram wore, then over at King.
Helbram's magic was indeed strong, but with his Sacred Treasure in hand, if King fought at full strength he could still beat him—at the very least, he shouldn't have been pressed this hard.
The reason was simple. Helbram's current appearance, like the fat man King had used before, was a disguise.
Helbram's true identity was a fairy; seven hundred years ago he'd been the bosom friend of Fairy King Harlequin.
Having put too much trust in humans, Helbram had watched with his own eyes as humans tore the wings from his kin.
After that, Helbram began a mad revenge against humans, committing massacre after massacre.
To stop his rampage, King had no choice but to kill him with his own hands.
Because a fairy's corpse doesn't decay, after his death his body passed from black market trader to trader as a commodity until it ended up in Holy Knight hands.
The Demon Clan possessed a secret art that, using an intact corpse as a medium, could recall a dead soul with negative emotions and resurrect it.
But that resurrection was false; once the caster died, the art would be undone. And since the art was sustained by negative emotions, the dead would be corroded by those emotions as well.
That was Helbram's case. His hatred for humans and the guilt from his killings had driven him nearly insane.
He was also the second unusual presence Charles had sensed here besides Gowther.
A fairy dead resurrected by a Demon Clan secret art—no wonder his aura was so complicated.
This was also why King couldn't go all out. Having already killed his dearest friend once, how could he harden his heart to do it again?
Charles sighed to King. "I do understand, but hesitation only hobbles your steps. What you've resolved to do—carry it through."
With that, Charles stepped past King to face Helbram. "No matter your reasons, the sins you've committed can't be erased. The only sympathy I can offer is to set you free."
Helbram's expression changed, and he said coldly, "What a self-righteous fool. Set me free… This world is hell to begin with!"
In a flash Helbram was in front of Charles, swinging a broad, curved blade down at him.
That single stroke split the ground apart. Holding the unconscious Meliodas, Ban retreated a long way to avoid the aftershock.
King also fell back, looking at the two combatants with a conflicted gaze.
Charles braced the blade with his armor-clad forearm, feeling the power behind it still climbing.
Helbram's magic was \[Synchronization], allowing him to borrow others' magic through pre-made magic cores.
So as long as enough people were lending power, the magic he could wield was effectively limitless.
At that moment, a group of Holy Knights at headquarters were feeding magic into the core, boosting Helbram's power.
A cruel grin covered Helbram's face as he steadily pressed more strength into his arms, trying to overwhelm Charles.
But after all that effort, Charles's raised arm didn't budge an inch. The smile vanished from Helbram's face—then he felt a tremendous force slam into his abdomen.
Charles drove a kick into him while he was still pushing, booting Helbram away, and then chased to attack.
Helbram adjusted in midair, swinging his scimitar as he traded blows with Charles.
In any world, the bedrock of strength is fundamental power.
Magic, chakra, reiatsu, haki—every top-tier powerhouse in every world reaches unparalleled might by stockpiling these basics to the limit.
Helbram fit that profile. Though achieved via synchronized magic, he did possess overwhelming magical power.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
In the ten or so meters Helbram flew back, metal rang again and again—the clashing of blade against armored fist.
Charles swatted the edge aside and swung his other fist for Helbram—who grabbed Charles's wrist and tried to flip him hard into the ground.
Charles rotated, sheathing his legs from the calves down in blistering flame, then scissored up in an inverted hook kick that sent Helbram crashing to the earth.
Helbram hit with a thud, smashing a crater in the solid ground.
Charles landed lightly, looking at Helbram as he clawed his way out of the pit.
"You say this world is hell. Then let me send you out of it."
(End of Chapter)
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