Everyone present had keen hearing; through the Regeneration Cradle they heard a sound.
It was the silence-broken heartbeat resounding again, and Charles had to grab Ban to keep him from flipping open the cradle right then and hugging Elaine.
Ban calmed quickly, reining himself in and continuing to wait.
A long time passed between the first and second beats, then the intervals shortened, until they settled into a normal rhythm.
The cradle shone with a lustrous glow that made everyone but Ban avert their eyes. After a while, the light gradually faded. Ban, still staring unblinking at the cradle, hadn't yet refocused when Charles's voice reached him.
"Success."
The white haze in Ban's vision receded, and the scene before him came clear.
The first thing he saw was the cradle's opened cover—and the girl sitting up, one hand braced on the rim.
Freshly resurrected, Elaine looked dazed for a moment, then saw Ban not far away and broke into a smile.
"Long time no see, Ban."
Ban, however, wasn't as frantic as before; he even hesitated a little. He was afraid this was only a dream that would shatter the moment he moved.
Charles couldn't take it anymore and gave him a shove.
Ban stumbled, then let the momentum carry him forward to Elaine and, without a word, pulled her into his arms.
Stella came to Charles's side, gently taking his hand. "It's so good they can be together again."
Charles squeezed her hand tighter and nodded. "Yeah. Though… how long are they planning to keep hugging?"
Just then, Charles felt a strange magical fluctuation. He looked up to see a road of magical light that had somehow appeared across the sky.
It had to be part of some technique, but the pattern was so vast that even Charles couldn't make out its full design.
Next, the Sacred Tree—no, the entire ground—began to shake.
"Is it an earthquake?" Stella asked.
Charles shook his head. "No. It's the signal to start the war."
Both the sigils in the sky and the trembling earth were caused by one thing: the unsealing of the Coffin of Eternal Darkness.
The broken sword in Meliodas's hand was actually the last fragment of the Coffin, and at Baste a Holy Knight had taken it amid the chaos.
During the capital's upheaval, Dreyfus had attacked Elizabeth and obtained the final key to open the seal—Goddess blood.
What they'd felt just now was the reaction to the Coffin's unsealing; as Charles said, it was the signal that the Holy War would begin anew.
In the original storyline, because the amount of Goddess blood Fraudrin got wasn't enough, only nine demons were released from the seal. But those nine were the Demon King's elite—the Ten Commandments' personal guard.
By Charles's reckoning, this time shouldn't be any different.
Even if the entire Demon Clan didn't break free, the Ten Commandments alone could turn Britannia upside down.
Because the Commandments' power was on a completely different level from present-day Britannia.
In the original, the Commandments emerged with their magic drained to zero by the seal.
Even so, Galand of Truth, at zero magic, still single-handedly routed Meliodas and the others.
By the world's power-level readings, Galand was the lowest of the Ten Commandments, yet his power level was 27,000.
The Seven Deadly Sins in their current, un-updated state—aside from Escanor—were all around 3,500.
Even so, the Sins were the only force in Britannia worth fielding.
Those self-unaware Holy Knights in Liones—at their strongest they were in the 700–800 range, maybe just over a thousand at the top. Not even a fraction of the Commandments.
That said, Charles still didn't know his own power level.
He preferred to test himself in real fights rather than by a magic-device reading anyway—and the Ten Commandments would make fine whetstones.
What Charles didn't notice was Gerheade off to the side, her face drawn.
Having personally lived through the Holy War three thousand years ago, she knew better than anyone what those omens meant.
She bit her lip and looked to Ban and Elaine, still locked in their embrace.
As if resolved, she leveled her staff at Ban.
Vines burst from the ground on either side of Ban, coiling around his arms and yanking him up.
Everyone reacted. "Gerheade, what are you doing?" Elaine cried.
Charles pulled Stella back and fixed a cold look on Gerheade, waiting for her answer.
Gerheade gave Elaine an apologetic look. "Lady Elaine, I have no choice.
The Demon Clan has revived, and the Holy War is upon us. The fairies need the Fairy King's protection, and only Lord Harlequin, chosen by the Sacred Tree, is the true Fairy King.
I'm grateful to Lord Ban for saving the forest, but we still must use his life to fully restore the Sacred Tree."
Elaine flushed with anger, but having just been resurrected, she didn't even have the strength to stand.
Ban smiled at her. "It's okay, Elaine. Trust me."
He tilted his head at Gerheade. "I've never cared about being the Fairy King. But this life—you can't have it."
He flexed his arms and tore the vines apart.
Gerheade swept her staff, and four more vines erupted behind her, spearing for Ban.
Mid-flight, nine fire-dragons streaked out and shredded them.
Stella gripped the Consort-Dragon Sinblade and said icily, "I can't watch this anymore. Doing something so ungrateful—aren't you ashamed?"
Unmoved by the rebuke, Gerheade said flatly, "Human, this isn't your affair."
Charles stopped Stella from rushing in and looked at Gerheade. "Greedy, selfish—fairies must use those words for humans a lot, right?
In the end, you're doing the same thing.
Drop the righteous act about 'for the fairies.' Don't tell me you don't know Ban's strength is enough to flatten the forest if it weren't guarded.
You're just counting on Lady Elaine being here, so he won't lay a hand on you.
Heh. How noble—the fairies, exploiting a human's goodwill. Really eye-opening."
He'd known this was what Gerheade would try, but seeing it still stoked his anger, and his tongue got a lot sharper.
Gerheade's composure cracked; she clenched her staff so hard she might crack her teeth.
Even so, she didn't waver; more vines sprouted behind her.
"Enough!"
Elaine's voice was no longer soft, but full of authority.
At her word, the vines behind Gerheade twisted—then bound Gerheade herself.
Those vines grew from the Sacred Tree. Fighting by commanding the Sacred Tree was the fairies' greatest power.
But fairies vary in strength, and the Sacred Tree has a will of its own; both affect how well a fairy can command it.
As the saint who guarded the Fountain of Youth, Elaine's control clearly surpassed Gerheade's. Even now, frail as she was, she wrested control away.
Elaine looked sadly at Gerheade, then turned to Ban. "We had a deal."
Ban nodded, a gentle smile on his face. "Someday, I'm going to steal you away."
He stepped forward and scooped Elaine up in a princess carry.
Charles packed away the cradle and followed Ban out.
Since the person involved wasn't pressing it, Charles had no standing to do anything more.
Still, he couldn't help feeling a little sore about it. By now Galand should be getting ready to pick a fight with Meliodas, right? If he hurried over, he might just catch him for a bout.
…
Fresh out of the Coffin of Eternal Darkness, Galand suddenly shivered.
Having no magic really throws everything off—his body was acting weird!
So he thought, blissfully unaware of what awaited him.
(End of Chapter)
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