"Elizabeth! Elizabeth! Elizabeeeeth…!"
Estarossa kept calling Elizabeth's name. The giant claw formed of dark energy tore through the darkness, revealing his twisted body.
After absorbing three Commandments, what little reason Estarossa had left was gone. He now acted only on his deepest obsession, so he didn't even glance at anyone else and charged straight at Elizabeth.
Elizabeth was actually the most surprised of all. In her memory she had never seen this "younger brother of Meliodas," so she couldn't understand why he was so fixated on her.
As she was thinking that, Elizabeth raised a hand to her forehead.
Just now, an image flashed through her mind—blurry and indistinct, like some forgotten fragment of memory. In that image, she really did cry out the name Estarossa.
But when she tried to recall it, it was like grasping at the moon's reflection in water—she came up empty.
Even with Elizabeth momentarily distracted, Estarossa still couldn't reach her.
Because Escanor had already stepped in front of him and cleaved him flying with a single axe strike.
"To ignore me—that's truly arrogant!"
Merlin instantly cast a Perfect Cube and sealed Estarossa inside.
"Don't you dare approach my sister!"
Ever since Elizabeth regained her memories, Merlin had gone back to addressing her the way she had when they first met. Still, hearing that cutesy form of address from her current self was admittedly a bit jarring.
Estarossa raved as he slammed madly at the Perfect Cube, howling nonstop.
Merlin frowned. Perfect Cube is a spell that is theoretically unbreakable. But no spell is absolute.
Even a Perfect Cube cast with Merlin's \[Infinity] has a limit to what it can withstand—and Estarossa's assault was pressing up against that limit.
With a single punch, cracks spread across the Perfect Cube. One more slap and it shattered completely.
With a roar, Estarossa lunged for Elizabeth again.
He smashed through the stone wall Diane raised and batted away King's small Spirit Spear, drawing close to Elizabeth once more.
Holding her forehead, Elizabeth looked at Estarossa with eyes lit by the Goddess sigil and said, "Estarossa… what exactly are you?"
Estarossa's incoherent rambling had stirred more contradictions in Elizabeth's memories.
She wouldn't misremember anything about Meliodas—he himself had told her he had only one younger brother, Zeldris.
The person "Estarossa" had never existed to begin with. That name should have belonged to a puppy she'd raised, which was why she asked that question.
Hearing it, Estarossa's movements froze, as if solidified.
Gowther's face changed. "The forbidden spell… is unraveling!"
Three thousand years ago, the Demon Clan's strongest sorcerer—Gowther of Selflessness, a member of the Ten Commandments—cast a forbidden spell to end the Holy War.
That spell twisted everyone's memories of Mael, one of the Four Archangels of the Goddess Clan. Even the Demon King and the Supreme Deity had their cognition overwritten.
Powerful as it was, the spell had limits. It required all of Gowther of Selflessness's magic and life force, plus the magic of the puppet Gowther, to activate successfully.
Its mechanism was to make everyone who knew Mael share and simultaneously alter their cognition of him.
Which meant that as soon as a single person discovered a flaw in their memory, the forbidden spell would collapse, and everyone's memories would restore together.
After Elizabeth asked that question, the spell had already begun to collapse.
Escanor caught Merlin as she suddenly buckled. "What's wrong, Lady Merlin?" he asked, worried.
Merlin pressed her forehead and said with difficulty, "The shock of the memories returning… So that's how it is."
"What exactly happened?" Escanor asked, bewildered.
Gowther stepped forward and explained, "Three thousand years ago, to end the Holy War, the Demon Clan's Gowther used a forbidden spell. He reversed everyone's memory of a certain person.
"Estarossa never existed in the first place. The one who did was the strongest of the Four Archangels—Mael!"
As his words fell, the pained "Estarossa" began to come apart. The darkness on his body peeled away in sheets, revealing a pure white figure beneath.
In particular, the black wings—once the darkness fell away—were replaced by white, feathered wings.
Unfortunately, only one side turned white; the other wing remained pitch-black.
After Estarossa—no, Mael—regained his true appearance, his reason did not return with it.
On the contrary, he grew even more deranged.
Mael looked at his hands, trembling all over. "What have I done? This is a dream, right? It has to be a long, long dream!"
His psychic turbulence now even surpassed the erosion of the Commandments—but that was only natural.
Mael had always taken pride in being of the Goddess Clan and one of the Four Archangels. All he wanted was to be his brother's pride.
But inside Gowther's forbidden spell, he lost all the things he took pride in—and even the person most important to him was replaced.
Worse still, during the years he spent as Estarossa, he committed countless crimes, slaughtering innumerable kinsmen and innocents.
Just earlier, he had personally killed Sariel, also one of the Four Archangels and his friend.
He desperately wished it had all been a dream, but the feeling of blood still on his hands told him this was cruel reality.
"Who did this? Who did something this monstrous?"
All Mael wanted now was to vent his boundless rage and pain. The intense negative emotions stirred the Commandments inside him back to life.
Gowther stepped forward. "It was me. So give up the Commandments, and I will submit to whatever you decide."
Mael glared at Gowther with bloodshot eyes. "So it was you! You twisted my life and took everything from me!"
He lunged at Gowther, reaching for his throat.
Gowther calmly closed his eyes. But after a long moment, no blow landed. When he opened them, he saw Charles standing in front of him, gripping Mael's wrist.
"Charles, this is my sin. Step aside," Gowther said.
Charles curled his lip. "Do you really think it's a sin?"
Gowther gave a bitter smile. "To arbitrarily twist another's life and leave them mired in suffering—there's nothing more vile."
"Maybe so," Charles said.
Then he turned to Mael. "But don't you dare soothe yourself by acting like a spotless victim."
With that, Charles kicked Mael flying.
He walked toward him step by step. "I've heard of you—you haven't forgotten your title, have you?
"Granted a Grace like the Sun, and yet what you brought wasn't warmth, but death. That's why they called you the Angel of Death.
"How many have you brought death to? On the battlefield, fine—but you killed plenty of Demon civilians too, didn't you?
"Oh, right—I nearly forgot the noble euphemism you use for your killing: 'purification'! So whatever revenge others take on you is only fitting, isn't it?
"Even if it isn't revenge, this is war. Dress it up as 'Holy War' if you like, it's still the coldest, bloodiest thing there is. The moment you step onto the battlefield, you'd better be ready for every consequence.
"So what are you wailing about now?"
Harsh as Charles's words were, they were irrefutable.
He truly hated tampering with someone's most precious memories—but Mael's self-pitying victim act irked him just as much.
Rather than accept reality, Mael preferred to pin the sin on the instigator—Gowther. Otherwise, how was he supposed to vent his pain?
"Ahhhhhhh!"
Prodded by Charles, the Commandments inside Mael rampaged again. His body swelled; though he still wore white, black sigils crawled across the fabric.
Charles clenched a fist. "Rather than talk you into waking up, I'd much rather beat you awake."
______
(≧◡≦) ♡ Support me and read 20 chapters ahead – patreon.com/Mutter
For every 50 Power Stones, one extra chapter will be released on Saturday.