"No, No, no, no, no! I won't do it! I refuse!"

Alfie stared up at a disgruntled Diane with a frown. Watery amethyst eyes glared down on defiance at the pink haired woman, plump lips quivering dangerously. " Diane-"

"Noooo~!" The giant cried again with a shake of her head. "Why do I gotta stay behind and watch the bar?!" She exclaimed. "Meliodas already told you why. Giant's are banned in the village." Alfie said calmly. "I can stay behind with you Diane." King offered but was ignored.

"Then make my medicine!" Diane shouted at the blue eyed woman, slamming her fists down on either side of the pinkette. Aelfryth stayed rooted to the ground and was unfazed but the others had gone flying from the impact of the giant's strength.

"I had nothing to do with your medicine Diane. That was all Merlin and she never got around to telling me how to replicate it." Alfie said as the others fell back to the ground around them like lifeless fish. "Then make me small!" Diane cried, snatching up her chief forcefully.

"Di...ane" Alfie wheezed pathetically, air rushing out her lungs. "Why am I always the one to get left behind?" This particular heart broken whimper had cause the sins to tense in place. "Even before we were exiled there was so much I got left out on. Am I that much of a burden?" The giant whispered with a heavily furrowed brow, her chin jerking to the side to hide the side of her face that had a tear rolling down her cheek.

"D-Diane! How could you say that?!" King said scandalized. "Awe come on now Dee, don't go saying stuff like that~" even Ban sported a frown after he picked himself up. "Yeah, no way is what you said true." Meliodas chimed in.

"That's enough, Diane."

Aelfryth was the only one not moved enough to dismiss the giant's claim. "Fine...fine!" The blue eyes woman then huffed exasperated. "Just give me a second to think." The pinkette murmured, looking about their surroundings and ignored the one-eighty Diane's emotions did. If Alfie wasn't mistaken, what the giant needed was in this very forest they stopped in.

" Somewhere around here there should be the very creature you need." The tiger sin said, Diane setting her down wordlessly. "It's called the Chicken Matango. It looks like a giant purple mushroom with a red top. If you startle it, it'll spray out a powder that'll shrink you to human size for a handful of hours. If your that determined to be able to shrink down into human size every now and again, you would be smart to bottle its powder" Alfie informed.

"That sounds wonderful! I can help you look, Lady Diane." Elizabeth offered. "You will?" the giant quirked a brow and beamed brightly when the princess nodded. "Yeay! Thanks a bunch Elizabeth. Let's get started right away!" the giant stated excitedly, moving off with a pep to her step. "Wait for me, Diane!" Elizabeth ran after the giant disappearing deeper into the woods. Staring at the direction where the duo went, Alfie was silent momentarily before blinking and snapping herself out of her own daze.

"Well she cheered up rather quick" Ban noted dully shortly before a yawn escaped from his lips. "Shouldn't we get going now that Diane's done throwing her fit?" the fox then asked. "It wasn't a fit - she was genuinley upset!" King corrected heatedly though he was ignored by the undead man, Ban having started walking towards Vaizel - causing the others to follow.

The search for Gowther had already been taken care of a day before and much to her pleasure, Alfie had been sensed a trickle of his magical trail out in the forest. After tracking it though, she found that it only led towards Vaizel.

The trek into the small village was rather painless, so painless that Alfie split off from the larger group to go scour for something that would keep her entertained. Since there were so many vendor stalls, the pinkette supposed that it wouldn't be too hard to find something that would amuse her a little later. After passing down a particular street, the pinkette caught onto the missing sins' magical trail once again even if faint.

"I'm on your scent Gowther" Alfie said to herself with a smirk, "You can't hide from me for long." the woman had then picked up the pace, moving around the civilians wandering around from stall to stall.

Turning down another street, the goat sin's scent had ultimatelyy led her to an avenue of scholarly items and about midway down did she sense Gowther's magical presence most. With her hands held behind her back, Alfie stalked forward with a rather pleased expression on her face. That expression faltered however when she got a good look at the male carrying the magical presence.

Instead of seeing a pink head of hair, she saw black and a slightly bulkier form than what Gowther was. That couldn't possibly be Gowther. Gowther was lithe and had dark rose pink hair. If that was true then why did this man feel like her fellow sin? Was he disguising himself? Gowther, Merlin, King and Aelfryth were the most handy when it came to magic so it wouldn't surprise Alfie if the goat sin had disguised himself after all.

Walking up to the side of the man carrying Gowther's magical presence, she frowned heavily and leaned slightly into his peripheal vision in order to catch his attention. "You aren't Gowther, why do you feel like him?" Alfie frowned once his attention was successfully caught. "Who? Why do I what now?" the man looked confused. Alfie narrowed her eyes on the man in annoyance, scanning him up and down scrutinizingly.

And that's when she found it.

Gowther's boots. The man was wearing Gowther's grey slouched ankle boots. "Where did you get those?" Alfie pointed to them. "Oh!" a look of recognition filled the man's face as he too looked down at his shoes. "I ran into a nice young man not too long ago on the path to this village. He claimed he seen how my daughter had been wearing shoes too big to fit her own feet while I walked around barefoot so he gave his own to me." he explained but this only cause Alfie to frown.

Gowther wasn't compassionate like that. He didn't understand how to be compassionate. "Why would he do that?" she questioned lowly. "He claimed that he once seen a similar gesture done and wanted to know what the feeling of doing a kind gesture felt like." the man recalled dutifully and then shrugged, "Yeah he was a pretty strange lad now that I think about it but still, it was nice of him." he admitted.

"Nice indeed." Alfie said absently, thinking over what he had told her. "Where did he go after he gave you his shoes?" the pink haired woman wondered. "He came here. Not sure where but he's here, somewhere." the man replied. Taking a moment to think, Aelfryth nodded and then thanked the father before moving off.

How frustrating.

The tiger sin sighed heavily, rubbing the back of her neck theraputically. Those boots were the only trail the Alfie had to go off of and now that she knew Gowther was here and indeed hiding, it just made her job harder.

Or did it?

Pausing abruptly, Alfie turned around and rushed back up to the father. "I need you to do me a favor." she said, hardly giving him the opprtunity to process that she was now again before him. "Think of that interaction you just told me about." she requested and then very quickly placed her palm against his forehead, her fingers clenching his dark midnight locks of hair. "Wha-?" his question had trailed off as his eyes became hazy while Alfie's glowed a bright blue.

"Oh, you don't have to - please! Keep your shoes on, I will be alright."

"It is of no inconvinience to me. I hear people do these acts of compassion all the time and I would like to experience it for myself. Take my shoes."

Mother fucker.

Groaning in frustation, Alfie ripped her hand away from his head and stomped a foot childishly. Damn that Gowther! He had blocked out the image of himself in the man's memories. In all consideration it was probably to stop people from doing the very thing that she was doing now in order to protect himself. No matter how reasonable or understandable it was, Alfie was still frustrated.

Whipping around, the pinkette stomped away for the second time. Now she felt like she needed a drink. Outside of those boots, Gowther's magical trail was no where to be found, nor did she even know at the least what Gowther looked like if he was under disguise. Just her luck.

Forcing herself to take a calming breath, Alfie half heartedly scanned the goods merchants were selling out of the corner of her eye as she walked by. Some of the items she stopped for and actually bought and now carried a basket on one arm to hold her new purchases. The pink haired woman also just so happened to rip down a wanted poster for Elizabeth and stuffed it into her basket.

"Alfie! Hey Alfie!" Hawk's voice sounded, distracting the pinkette from looking over her new possessions. Looking up, the pinkette seen the pig running towards her with a barrel of ale on his back. "Look at what I thought up of so we can make some extra cash!" the pig beamed, skirting to a stop with an all too proud grin on his face. The woman couldn't help but smile and pat the pig's head.

"Good job, Hawk. Any buyers yet?" she wondered. "Yup!" he chirped and then shook his head from side to side so she could hear the jingle of the few coins in his coin purse around his neck. "Where did the others go?" she then asked lightly. "Oh, they went to go participate in the fighting festival so they could fairly win Diane's hammer. The preliminary is going on right now." Hawk explained. "Lead the way then." she said with a wave of her hand.

Following the pig, Alfie found that he led her to a rather large crowd circling a fighting arena with some short animated helmet creature refereeing the whole thing. Amongst the throng of brawling men on the platform, Alfie seen glimpses of Meliodas, Ban and King - the last of the trio spent most of the time running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

"Poor King." Alfie vocalized with a laugh. "Yeah he's been doing that for a while now, I'm surprised he hasn't been knocked out yet." Hawk said honestly. "Well King is a slippery one. I can't necessarily blame anyone struggling to catch him." Alfie continued to laugh.

Alfie was content on watching her friends half heartedly fight to stay in the ring but she soon tensed when she noticed a dirty blonde headed figure in the ring with them. "I know that guy…." she trailed off thoughtfully, rubbing her jaw in thought and then it hit her. It was a holy knight. "That's a holy knight." Alfie stated to the pig. "What?!" Hawk screached in alarm.

"Yeah, he's best friends with Gilthunder. Howzer, a wind user if I remember right. A pretty decent one too" she recalled with a frown. A certain long haired meat head soon entered the sins' vision shortly after her observation of Howzer. "That beefy dude with brown hair is a holy knight too. Princess Veronica's personal body guard, Griamore." she added on, not calming the talking animal in the least bit.

"If either of them recognizes us it's a wrap - we gotta get outta here!" Hawk squealed and attempted to haul ass away but only succeeded in running in place and kicking up dust seeing as Alfie had caught him by his tail without blinking."We need Diane's hammer." the tiger proclaimed, level headed in comparison to her companion. "Then grab it and let's go!" Hawk yelled.

"We don't need a mob coming after us because we stole it. That kind of heat is counter-productive." Alfie said factually, falling into her thoughts once more. What was either holy knight doing all the way out here? Howzer she supposed she could understand - he liked to explore. Griamore however...he never left the purple haired princess' side. Him being here could only mean that Princess Veronica wasn't far off, though what either was doing here still escaped Aelfryth.

"THE ELIMINATION ROUNDS HAVE CONCLUDED! WINNERS REPORT TO THE WAITING ROOM!"

Frowning at this sudden declaration by the referree, Alfie gave a yank in order to force Hawk to sit down. "I'll take care of it, just sell your ale - okay?" the woman instructed the pig and then moved off, steathily making her way towards the little hut that her companions were heading towards themselves. Seeing as she made sure to wait a few moments after all the contestants had entered the room, Alfie had walked in right on time to hear the referree explaining how the festival finals would work.

"Line up and draw lots to pick your opponent! Those with the same letters will be duking it out!" he explained, urging the eight bodies in the room to do as he said. "Maaannn~ I can't wait until we get into the finals so I can duke it out with whoever is good enough to make it there." Ban grinned to the short blonde as they waited their turns.

"Don't talk a big game and get knocked out before it can happen." Meliodas chuckled from his position in line before the towering man. "Not gonna happen." Ban grinned wickedly. " Do me a favor and re-think that statement." Alfie chimed in behind the duo, startling them. "Hey Al' what are you doing here?" Ban questioned after he had turned to address her. "Warning you lot." she said bluntly. "We got a couple of holy knights sniffing around. Two of them to be specific." Alfie informed.

"Huh, where?!" King suddenly popped up next to the woman with a frantic expression on his face. Meliodas and Ban also had tensed at this news being brought to light. "That long haired meat head Griamore and Gil's best friend Howzer." Alfie pointed to the duo in question who stood on the other side of the room after getting their lots.

"She's right, I recognize Howzer. He was basically Gilthunder's shadow whenever I saw them together." King confirmed her statement after taking in the sight of the dirty blonde in particular. "Man, this sucks." Ban whined with a frown, hand resting on the back of his neck. "It'll be a pain if either one of them were to recognize us." Meliodas frowned too, and then his eyes slid back of to Alfie. "What about Gowther?" he asked seriously.

"The first match is Griamore versus Matrona!"

"I caught his scent of his magical trail and followed it." Alfie began to retell her tale of struggles from earlier, none of the sins paying much attention to the announcements of matches.

"Second match is Howzer versus Taizoo!"

"I found it even before we reached Vaizel but it only led into the village which is why I came back to finish the journey with you guys." Alfie crossed her arms over her chest with a frown.

"The third match is Cain versus Old Fart!"

"When we got here, I tracked it again to some guy who had the scent all over him. I thought it was Gowther in disguise but it turns out the bastard had been experimenting with understanding emotions again and gave his shoes to some guy who didn't have any on the way here. I tried searching his head so I could figure out where he went but Gowther meddled with it - blurring out his image so he couldn't be tracked by appearance. The guy claims Gowther is somewhere here though." The tiger finished.

Ban whistled lowly, "Man, when Gowther doesn't want to be found - he really makes sure he can't be found." he said a bit impressed. "I need him to not be in hiding." Alfie growled lightly. "It's a pain in my ass...we also have another problem." she revealed. "How much worse can this possibly get?!" King asked incredulously. Wordlessly, Aelfryth pulled out Elizabeth's wanted poster and unfurled it with a jerk of her wrist.

"She's wanted?!" King's eyes just about bugged out of his head as he read the parchment paper.

"The fourth match is Meliodaf versus Baan!"

"For association with us no less." Ban noted dully, bothered by this fact. "This is all one big cluster fuck." Alfie stated bluntly, shoving the paper back into her basket. "Where Griamore is, Veronica is sure to be near by." the woman proclaimed. "If I can get to Veronica - I can get her and her meat headed body guard out of here. That'll be one holy knight off our back." she assured.

"Hey - do I know you guys?"

Speak of the devil.

The four sins turned and seen Howzer had approached and was scrutinizing them all rather thoughtfully. Without missing a heartbeat, Alfie delivered a kick to the side of Howzer's knee - causing the man to collapse onto the assulted body part in question. Opening his mouth to no doubt demand just what the hell was wrong with her, Alfie already had his head in her grasp and her eyes glowing blue - his hazing over.

"A little memory loss never hurt anyone…." she said absently. After a few moments, Alfie released her hold on the man and helped Howzer to his feet. "Ugh, wha-what happened?" he ground out, grasping at his head with one hand.

"You kind of just collapsed," Alfie said with faux concern. "Are you sure you're okay to fight that brute Taizoo?" she fretted. Howzer blushed when he seen the pretty pinkette showing so much concern, his eyes darting off to the side bashfully. "I- I'll be okay. I'm so sorry to put you all in this situation and thanks for the help." he laughed nervously. "It's no problem at all." Alfie beamed and then leaned in close to his ear.

"I'll be cheering for you, cutie~" she whispered in a sultry tone. "You'll win for me, won't you? You had some rather amazing moves and I'd love to see some of them in a one on one session after the festival if you don't mind" she cooed, rubbing his muscled chest with a free hand and then lightly bit the shell of his ear. Yelping with a cherry red face, Howzer pulled away from the devious woman and looked at her rather stunned. Adding a wink on top of it, Alfie bit her lip and held her hands behind her back as she awaited an answer - blinking up at the man through her thick dark lashes.

"S-s-sure!" Howzer's voice cracked through the stutter, leading Alfie to giggle heartily. "Good," she took steps towards him but with every step she took in advance, he retreated. "I look forward to the rest of today and well into the morning of tommorrow~" she whispered loud enough for him to hear and then headed towards the door - making sure to pause and wave goodbye to the holy knight before disappearing outside. Howzer wasn't the only one left stunned from the brazen display the pinkette had showed. Meliodas, King and Ban were stunned as well.

"What the heck was that?!"

While the men were left reeling, Aelfryth was laughing. It was much too funny to see poor Howzer's reaction. Sobering, Alfie focused her senses on tracking down the purple haired princess of Liones down. "Veerroonniiccaa~" Alfie sang, weaving through the sea of men and women with the basic hair colors.

"Where, oh where, could you be?" she looked around with a careful eye. If she couldn't find this pain in the ass royal either, Alfie was going to throw herself off a cliff. She would not be going 0 for 2 in terms of finding people today. She may just have to kill someone if she did.

After another set of minutess of scanning the crowd, Aelfryth finally spotted the tomboy royal. She was directly across from the pinkette on the other side of the ring - merging herself with the crowd rather well. "There you are." she grinned wickedly, moving off to be able to sneak up on the woman of her focus. Even when the crowd roared in the excitment of the matches starting back up - Alfie didn't falter from her task at hand.

"The first match of the finalists are about to begin! Griamore vs Matrona! A 400 pound mountain of muscle versus our mysterious caped female fighter!...By the way miss, you will have to remove the cloak just so I can be sure you aren't hiding any weapons."

Don't move. Don't you dare move. Aelfreyth would scream if Veronica decided to disappear into the crowd that was currently going crazy over the full body appearance of the woman fighter. The tiger couldn't afford to pay attention though. She had a job to do. Protect the group. Just as always, no matter what…

The fight had been going on for a few minutes and just as Alfie had snuck up on Veronica, the woman dubbed Matrona had knocked Griamore straight out of the ring - off the ledge the fighting took place on entirely in all actuality. "What a killer punch - huh?" Alfie whispered in the princess' ear, observing Griamore's falling form in the distance. Veronica tensed, a small gasp escaping her lips at the familiar voice in her ear.

"So much for that wicked Wall ability your body guard prides himself on." she taunted. Glaring at nothing in particular, Veronica began to reach for the sword on her back but pressure at the base of her spine stopped the royal from moving at all. "Aht, aht! You go doing stupid stuff like that and I'll snap your spine like a twig and carry your corpse out of here without anyone being any wiser about it." Alfie warned lowly, her hand remaining on the smaller woman's back.

Begrugingly Veronica returned her arm to her side but did so with a fierce scowl on her face. "Why don't we go check on good old Griamore, huh?" Alfie suggested and gave the woman a nudge to get her moving. "I can walk on my own." Veronica snapped at the sin, stalking forwards a moment after. "Of course, princess." Alfie smirked, following after. Taking the wooden bridge onto the grassy hill side, both women worked their way downwards to where they last seen Griamore land.

"Oh my. He's still unconscious." Alfie observed with a trill, "I would get a new body guard if I were you." she smirked, unfazed when the woman snapped a quick 'fuck you' in return of her taunt. "Griamore!" Veronica then turned her ire on the man that was supposed to be protecting her. "Griamore! GET UP!" the royal yelled with a glare.

The man's face twitched as he returned to the land of the conscious, pained groaning soon followed as the muscled man worked his way to his knees. "What-what happened?" the tan man asked, his eyes still closed which prohibited him from seeing the predicament his charge was in. "You got sloppy and let your guard down - if I would have known this would have happened then I would of just brought Gilthunder and Quinn with me." Veronica chastised, much to the man's dismay.

Alfie whistled lowly at this, "Damn, she stuck it to you there huh Griamore?" she asked rhetorically. Hearing her voice, the holy knight tensed on the spot and shot his head up. A split second had gone by before Griamore had his hand on his weapon and was ready to cleave the pink haired woman in two for holding Veronica hostage.

"DON'T!" Veronica yelled when he took a step forward at the same time Aelfryth had put increased pressure on her spine. "Princess Veronica?" Griamore said through clenched teeth. "If you come any closer you'll kill me. She'll snap my spine Griamore - look at where her hands are!" Veronica explained in a frustrated tone.

Scanning her lithe form, Griamore did notice that the tiger sin's hands were no where near any of the three swords she carried on her person. Instead they were hiding directly towards Veronica, leading the man to see that what the princess had spoken was true after all. "You wreched monster, get your hands off the princess!" Griamore yelled.

Alfie tisked a few times, "That's no way to get what you want. My, my how you knights have grown rude over the years." she simpered. "And what is it that you do want exactly?" Veronica asked with a glare. "Me?" Alfie blinked. "Well there are a lot of things I want but unfortunately you - dear Veronica and Griamore- will only be able to help me with one of them." she informed.

"As if we would-!"

"What do you want?" Veronica cut off Griamore's protest evenly. "I want to know why the two of you are sniffing around, don't think I didn't see Howzer earlier either." Alfie said plainly. "We're here for the festival of course." Veronica replied with ease but Aelfryth smirked, rolling her eyes in exasperation. "Dear, sweet Veronica~" Alfie purred in the other woman's ear. "You ought to know better than to lie to a Sin." the tom boyish princess frowned, tilting her head away from the stronger woman but said nothing.

"Now, we're going to try this again. EIther you can tell me the truth this time or I can force you to tell me the truth. Or better yet I can force Griamore to tell me. It makes no difference to me." Alfie shrugged, smirking at Griamore's harsh glare he sent her way without fail.

"It's your choice, Princess." the pinkette summed up. Veronica was quiet for a few minutes, thinking over the situation before her with a rather unhappy look upon her face as she did so. "Tick tock, tick tock. I don't have all day" Alfie warned after she grew tired of waiting. "Let me also point out that I could have easily forced you to tell me what I want to know during the sweet time your taking at the moment. That alone should make you want to at least consider the possibility of spilling your guts." the tiger pointed out.

Veronica gave the ex-knight that. Aelfryth - the suspected true leader of the eight deadly sins could of easily forced the words to come out of her mouth at any moment. So why hasn't she? "Why haven't you then?" Veronica asked in return, causing Alfie's brow to furrow. Scoffing, she pushed the princess away from her form - Griamore catching the royal's stumbling form and steadying her.

"This is starting to get old, damn it." Alfie snapped as Veronica turned towards her. " Quit beating around the bush. I know you're here looking for Elizabeth" both princess and knight looked surprised at this. "If either one of you were the least bit competent then perhaps you would have found her roaming the woods not too long ago as she helped Diane look for ingredients." Al spilled to the duo.

"Now that, that's out of the way let's get back to business. Why are you here - why is Howzer here? You said it yourself, Griamore is the only knight you personally brought with you so why is Howzer in the same village as you two?" Alfie pressed heatedly. "You know why I'm here but I don't know what you're talking about with Howzer." Veronica started, "I mean it!" she exclaimed quickly when an annoyed look filled the other woman's face.

"I didn't know he was here, so I don't know what business he has here, he didn't say anything to me about leaving the castle at all." Veronica said honestly. Aelfryth scrutinized the purple haired royal and much to her displeasure - she couldn't sense a lie rolling off Veronica's tongue when she spoke. Holding the royal's gaze for a few moments more, Aelfryth clicked her tongue out of annoyance and turned on her heel without another word - walking away from the pair.

Flipping useless.

Nothing was going her way today was it?

She had to deal with Diane's hissy fit, she was lead on a wild goose hunt trying to find Gowther, and now she didn't even know the real reason holy knights were in the area outside of looking to re-claim Elizabeth.

The only thing left was for her to group up with her companions again, which is what exactly she set out to do. Working her way back up the hillside where the fighting was taking place, Alfie weaved her way through the crowd until she found Ban and King again. "Hey, there you are." Ban noticed the woman's arrival as she walked up, disregarding his own haggard appearance from duking it out with Meliodas.

"We were beginning to worry about ya." the blue haired man said, throwing an arm around her shoulders. "You find out anything?" he then asked. "Not really." Alfie sighed, "Not that that's anything new today it seems." she pouted. "Meh, don't worry too much about it." Ban waved off what she listed. "Just sit back and watch the captain and Diane beat the crap out of each other." he insisted.

"Diane is in the running?" Alfie blinked in surprise, shocked that the giant had found what she needed in the forest so quickly. "Yeah, she entered under the name of Matrona." Ban informed, pointing up to the stage where Meliodas and Diane stood- the girl's tavern uniform being torn to shreds from previous fights. "Ohhhh, so it looks like she found the creature in the woods after all." the pinkette noted.

"THE FINAL MATCH IS ABOUT TO BEGIN! MATRONA VS MELIODAF!"

"Well atleast we're getting Diane's Giddeon for sure." Alfie noted as a matter of factly, leaning against Ban soundly and wrapping her own arm around his waist. The man tightened his hold on the woman as she did this and hummed in agreement. The blue haired man tried to ignore how Alfie's fingers danced across his fox brand but it was very hard, her hands wer so soft….

"BEGIN!"

"So, how hard are we gonna go at it?" Meliodas grinned at Diane. "Let's be honest here captain, you've already won because you KO'ed my heart" Diane cooed with a wink. "That was incredibly cheesy." Alfie huffed a laugh. "Ohhh, Meliodaf~" a chorus of girls suddenly called out. Some rather riskily dressed girls with well endowed assets on display at that.

"Hurry and finish up that muscle headed girl so we can go and have some fun~" one winked seductively, her friends joining in with their own offers. "Oh my." Alfie blinked, turning back towards stage and seen one pissed off Diane and a confused Meliodas. "Do I know any of you?" the blonde scratched his head. "You are such a…. JERK, CAPTAIN!" Diane shouted, causing Meliodas to turn towards the human sized giant right in time to eat a punch that sent him deep into the stone fighting ring.

"Ouch." Alfie winced with a smirk. Ban seemed to find the whole situation rather hilarious.

"You didn't expect me to really stand by and let the finale of this thing be boring did you?" Ban purred in Alfie's ear. Aelfryth gasped and swatted the man's toned stomach with a laugh. "You are terrible!" she crowed, urging Ban to laugh along with her. "Oh but you love it." Ban smirked. "unfortunately." Alfie returned amused before returning her gaze to her two companions duking it out.

Well really it was Diane attempting to land another hit before Meliodas realized begrudgingly that he was going to have to start throwing his own unless he wanted to be pummeled again. "As entertaining as this is" Ban mused as he watched Diane and Meliodas trade and block blows from one another. " I'm not gonna lie, I would have loved to see you and the captain go against each other." Alfie winced at the harsh knee to the gut Diane delivered to Meliodas at that particular moment.

"Maybe one day you'll get to see it." Alfie answered, resisting the urge to rub her own head when Meliodas countered with his own strike against his companion. "We'd have to put a restriction on you of course though." King jumped into the conversation. "No knuckle tapping. The fight would end too soon if you did." The fairy shrugged.

"So you want me to put forth actual effort. That sound exhausting." Alfie complained but soon she, Ban and King all tensed at the same moment Melidas and Diane did on stage as the blonde had blocked one of her hits.

"Hey, what's the matter? Why did they stop?" Hawk's voice sounded as the pig walked up to his two legged companions. "Lady Alfie? Sir Ban and King?" Elizabeth's voice soon joined, eyes widening when King transformed to his actual size and approached the stage with Ban.

Unknownst to the princess and the now upset crowd of humans who had wanted the fight between the sins to continue- something was coming. Something bad.

"Hey, what the heck is going on?"

"Finish him, Matrona!"

"Don't keep us waiting in suspense!"

"WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON? ARE BOTH FIGHTERS OUT OF STEAM?" the referree himself exclaimed.

Seperating from each other, Diane and Meliodas faced the direction in which they felt the strong presence coming from just as Ban and King stepped behind them as well. Alfie had noticed that even Howzer looked rather disturbed by what was approaching which only convinced her even more that some serious shit was about to go down.

The approaching auras were weird - tainted, twisted and warped. All three of them felt like holy knights but darker... " My real identity is Meliodas of the eight deadly sins. The Dragon sin of Wrath!" Meliodas shouted out to the crowd and soon did the others follow.

"Diane - the Serpent sin of Envy!"

"King, the Grizzly sin of Sloth!"

"Ban, the Fox sin of Greed!"

"And we're taking over this town right now! You have less than a minute to get the hell out of here!" Meliodas exclaimed. "What the heck are they revealing themselves for when they know holy knights are hanging around?!" Hawk squealed. "I don't get it - what are they doing, lady Alfie?" Elizabeth cried out but instead the pinkette remained silent, her own eyes glued in the direction the auras were coming from.

"You guys look nothing like your posters!"

"Who are you trying to fool?"

"Think about how strong they all were though."

It seemed that at least one man had sense in the crowd.

"If those are really the sins…. Then doesn't that mean that the Tiger sin is with them?!" this same man asked in a panicked voice. As if on cue, Aelfryth jumped up and landed before her companions with a savage look upon her face that neither Hawk or Elizabeth had ever seen before on the rather lax woman.

Her landing had caused an aftershock to shake the air and sent a wave of fear into those outside the ring. The woman's magical aura had manifested around her, pinkish-white in color and whipped her hair around wildly which only intensified the severity of the situation everyone was now in.

"If you pathetic humans insist on defying my companions and therefore wronging them in my eyes. Then I am entitled to endulge in my sin..." Aelfryth began and then ripped her collar down to show her mark to the world. "If we can't have this town…. THEN NO ONE CAN!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, her aura exploding outwards.

The magical prowess of the woman had sent the earth quaking violently, nearby structures and shops collapsed on themselves and it was a miracle the outcrop the ring was built upon didn't as well. The actions of the revenge sin did get a desirable result however, the humans had scattered like ants running out of a flooded ant hill. The only ones who remained rooted in place were Elizabeth and Hawk who only stared in fright and disbelief at the prowess of the woman.

The others had run just in time though because, heading straight towards their location and the rest of the town was a barrage of yellowish-red magical orbs that looked rather familiar. Eyes glowing blue, Aelfryth leapt into the air and sent out a pulse of her magic. Very breifly did the color pink flash in the approaching attack orbs before disappearing again but Alfie didn't falter.

What she did wasn't a failure. Coating her hand in magic, she lashed out her arm in a sweeping motion. "Go back to where you came from." she growled lowly, her glowing eyes glaring angrily at the figures in the distance. As if skidding to a stop, the magical orbs turned around and was sent flying back towards its originator.

Falling back onto the ground next to her companions, Alfie waited with them to see what would happen next. "That magic is explosive in nature." she broke the silence between them all as she watched the creatures the knights rode in on struggled to dodge the countered attack but because Aelfryth had willed for themt to truly return to their creator - they couldn't dodge for long and had been hit with the explosions.

"And we only know one person with that kind of magical ability." Meliodas said unamused, eyed unmoving from the sky. "Told you we should of killed her while we had the chance." Ban frowned with his unhelpful comment. "Yeah, I'll give you that one." the pinkette acknowledged. "Split up," she then barked, "Evacuate the town. Diane - get Gideon. No holy knight leaves the town alive. If possible, capture one and bring it to me. I wanna see why they're giving off a warped aura."

"Yes, Cheif!" the four sins chorused in unison and then leapt in different directions in order to carry out the orders given to them. "Hawk!" Alfie then turned to the talking animal who squeaked at him being addressed. "Get Elizabeth back to the tavern. Guard her." she ordered sternly. "With my life!" Hawk saluted the pink haired woman with his floppy ear and then scooped up Elizabeth and began to haul ass away from the action despite the protests of the green haired princess on his back.

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.

"You told me you didn't know what they were doing here!" Aelfryth glared down into Griamore's eyes with unconcealed rage. "I don't know!" if wasn't the knight that said this though, it was Veronica who Aelfryth had unashamedly given a beating to. "I don't like being lied to." Alfie snarled, drawing a sword and plunging it into the torso of Griamore. She didn't even flinch when the coughed up blood of the man splattered on her face.

"I'm not lying." Veronica insisted, blood falling into her own eye. She pathetically attempted to crawl over to help her poor knight but it wasn't doing so well considering Alfie had fractured and broken a good number of her bones when she found the purple haired princess desperately trying to track down Elizabeth.

It seemed she had taken Aelfryth's earlier statement to heart because the sin had found her heading towards the forest but put a stop to it quickly. After the capture of Veronica, it wasn't hard to track down Griamore seeing as the big lug was never far from her. The mountain of muscle had been rendered unable to move with a few well placed knuckle taps to his body.

"You are!" Aelfryth snapped and shoved another sword down into Griamore's form. Not into his gut though, right into his shoulder and gave a cruel twist - the disturbing sound of bone popping out of place rang in the air along with Griamore's scream of pain. "STOP IT!" Veronica yelled, her eyes starting to fill with tears. "He can't even fight back you monster!" she cried.

"Oh he can," Alfie smirked, "He's just too incompetent to do so. Again, I suggest a new guard, Princess." another scream ripped through the air when another sword went into his lower stomach. "I'll ask you again," Alfie then placed her hand on the second sword - Jericho's - embedded in his shoulder. "What. Are. They doing. Here." Alfie glared at Veronica.

"I don't kn- "

Veronica's answer had been cut off when Alfie abruptly pulled out the sword from Griamore's shoulder and then lopped the entire arm off. The pinkette remained stoic to the screams that arose from both people present and moved onto the next sword stuck in the man after sheathing the first sword. Gilthunder's sword was lodged in his appendix.

" What are they doing here?" she repeated, the grass around the man was pooling with blood and the only movement that came from the man were twitches to depict the pain he was in. The princess really couldn't afford to stay too loyal to the man if she wanted him to live. "What do you want from me?! I told you what you wanted." a tear now openly flowed down Veronica's cheeks. Rolling her eyes, Alfie jerked the sword to the right and then removed it completely before sheathing that one as well.

"I just cut open an organ of his. He will bleed out and die if you don't give me what I want." Alfie pressed. "D-don't c-cry,princess." Griamore suddenly coughed out blood with a pained grimace. He was turning pale at a rapid rate from the wounds inflicted. "J-just run. Get your sister...a-a-and run. I c-couldn't die happier… having served you for….as long as I have." he smiled weakly.

"Don't talk like that!" Veronica was quick to scold, "You're gonna be fine!" she promised, causing Alfie to frown. Ripping out Guila's sword from his torso, Alfie sheathed the weapon and then knelt down on her knees by his blood soaked head and grabbed his heavy skull with both her hands. "You have one last chance before I snap his neck and put him out of his misery." Aelfryth made sure to look the princess dead in the eyes as she said this.

Getting a surge of strength, Veronica unsteadily rushed towards the pinkette with intentions on tackling her away from Griamore but Alfie merely dodged with a simple lean and watched as Veronica tumbled to the ground in a heap.

"You don't want to answer my question that's fine." Aelfryth sighed in exasperation, "Then maybe you'll answer this one. Why doesn't Griamore and Howzer feel like those other holy knights? Guila specifically and who ever else she has with her." Alfie questioned.

"...Hendrickson." Veronica murmured. "Hendrickson is doing something to them. I don't know what but he is. Guila is apart of his New Generation of holy knights. He takes hand selected holy knights somewhere and they undergo some sort of transformation. From this they get at least get ten times stronger than what they used to be in a short amount of time. It's all I know." the noble finished weakly.

Well. How concerning. Leaning over, Alfie took hold of Griamore's detached arm and held it in place with one hand. Biting her other, Alfie allowed her blood to trickle over the wound - watching as the arm soon reattached its self to the holy knight.

Aelfryth then held open Griamore's mouth and allowed her blood to dribble inside as well, keeping his mouth shut when he attempted to spit it out. The woman was deep in thought as she thought over what Veronica had told her, only moving off when Griamore's wounds healed completely so she could heal Veronica as well.

Not too long after Aelfryth had finished healing the princess, a large explosion went off. Turning her head towards it, Alfie vaguely seen the blue and yellow forms of Ban and Meliodas collide before falling to the earth limply. Scowling, Alfie forgot about the princess and her guard and rushed off towards where she seen her companions fall.

It didn't take long for Aelfryth to track them down, nor did it take long to find out who had caused such injuries to her companions. "Who did a number on you two?" Alfie murmured softly, turning the duo over onto their backs. Meliodas wasn't bleeding but Ban was and for some reason his body was taking longer than usual to heal the cuts over his torso.

"Guila and Jericho, unfortunately." King's real voice sounded, causing Alfie to look over and see that the fairy was indeed in his true form with a large gash across his stomach. "They got you too?" Aelfryth quirked a brow but King snorted. "As if." he said cockily much to her amusement

"His wound would be my fault, I'm afraid." a new voice joined, gaining the tiger's attention. It was some man in rather impressive golden armor with green hair and wore an eye patch. "Who the heck is that?" Alfie quirked a brow. "His name is Helbram - someone who I thought died a long time ago." King informed with a troubled expression on his face.

"While Sir Helbram is responcible for King's wounds, I believe Jericho and I would be the ones responcible for defeat of Meliodas and Ban.I claim responcibility for Meliodas" a feminine robotic voice sounded. Alfie's eye twitched at the sound of Guila's voice.

"Guila." Aelfryth straightened from her crouched position next to her companions and looked to the stoic woman now beside Helbram with an even expression. "And I take responcibility for Ban." another familiar voice joined. Looking off to the right, the pinkette was greeted with the sight of Jericho who had undergone quite the makeover in contrast to the last time she saw the holy knight apprentice in Baste prison.

Her eyes were blank though which sent rather unwelcomed thoughts raging through the blue eyed woman's head. "This is rather troubling news then." Alfie acknowledged. "For you, yes." Jericho grinned, hand on her new sword. "On the contrary, I was going to say for you two." Alfie smirked, leaning her weight onto one foot and causing the former swords of the duo to rattle.

"It's been a little while since we've seen each other - Aelfryth." Guila spoke with her usual smile. "And I've learned much since then. I believe you once said that I would have to get through your companions in order to get to you. As you can see, that aspect has already been taken care of. So tell me," the dark haired woman shifted into a fighting stance.

"Are you prepared for a review session?" Guila smiled. "You wouldn't mind if I joined in, right?" Jericho smiled as she too moved into a fighting stance. "Whaaaatt? I didn't even do anything to you." Alfie frowned at the shorter woman. "Maybe not as much as Ban but you still contributed to my humiliation, especially when you took my sword - which I'll be taking back today." Jericho said as a matter of fact.

Sighing heavily, the pinkette looked down at the unconscious forms of Ban and Meliodas."You guys are putting me in an annoying situation…" Alfie trailed off, a sour expression then crossing her face. "How come I have more than one person coming after me while you get one? Where's Diane?" Alfie complained to King. "I have no idea, I haven't felt her presence in a while." the fairy supplied.

"Fantastic." the woman sighed. "Indeed it is!" Helbram crowed with a laugh. "It seems we'll be making quite the haul." he smirked. "You're really confident in that fact aren't you?" Alfie quirked a brow. "Indeed I am but for good reason!" Helbram exclaimed and then shoved his sword into the ground before him and then snapped his fingers.

At first nothing happened, which made Aelfryth question if Helbram had lost his mind but then it happened. A few yards behind him, did portals appear. A good ten had to have formed and from out of these portals did holy knights appear. "Well I can see why you're confident." Alfie commented dryly, eyeing the people before her. "Got any bright ideas?" King asked with a grimace.

"Just one." Alfie assured, "But it includes you taking Ban and Meliodas and hauling ass out of here while I hold the others off." King's eyes widened and he looked to his chief incredulously. " You can't be serious!" The fairy proclaim. "Deadly serious." Alfie nodded and then smiled. "Don't you go worrying about me. I always get my revenge, remember?" She nudged the grown fairy playfully.

"But-"

"Go, King. Get Meliodas and Ban out of here, back to the tavern. We're getting out of here. Get Hawk's mom up and going while you're at it." Alfie ordered evenly, a meaningful look in her eye. King hesitated for a long moment but finally nodded reluctantly, "I'll be quick so that I can help you." He vowed, lugging Meliodas over his shoulder and tossing Ban onto Chastifold's pillow form. "I'll be here." Alfie smirked and watched as the injured fairy retreat with their comrades.

"How noble of you." Helbram stated smugly. "I see that even you criminals care for each other." He pointed out. Hearing this, Alfie turned back to the army of knights and smiled slightly, "You have no idea." She murmured. "You lot have been rather persistent lately, itching to defeat us in battle and put our heads on a platter…" she trailed off.

" In my opinion, I say you're better off leaving us alone. Leaving me alone... but if you insist on fighting, then I'll give you what you want. I'm sick of giving chances to back down and live to see another day. If you want a fight, then you have one. I'll even take care not to hold back" the grins of Guila and Jericho widened at the statement and prepared themselves for the sin to attack. Helbram on the other hand frowned heavily, a sense of foreboding filling his frame.

"I want you all to realize something though," Alfie slowly brought a hand up and grabbed her own face, fingers spread wide so she could still see the duo through the gaps. " I didn't want this." The sin said softly, her eyes flickering from the pretty blue to pitch black with no pupils at all, striking fear into the holy knights.

Her pink hair slowly began to turn black, from the ends of her locks and moving up to her roots. "Wh-what is she doing?" Jericho stuttered uneasily, stuck between launching herself forward or retreating. The wind, blowing around her newly colored locks only made the sin of revenge seem even more ominous than she already was. "I don't know. She didn't take on this form when we last saw each other." Guila answered, equally as disturbed as her companion.

"You'll be thanking me when I set you all free." Alfie said, her voice taking on an absent and echoing tone. "Shadow cold and dark~" the tiger sin sang hauntingly. "Make the final plea~ Take the sands of time and set the spirit free~" beneath her feet did the grass behind to decay, crumbling into grey clumps of nothing. The sky darkened as well in an unnatural way, the dying vegetation beneath them all spread towards her opponents at a rapid rate.

"~Wither and decay. End this destiny.~" holy knights began collapsing one by one, gasping for air as their strength suddenly left them. Guila, Jericho and Helbram were not apart of the exception. "Wh-what the….hell." Jericho gasped heavily, trying desperately to fill her lungs.

"M-my strength is...leaving me…" Helbram said in disbelief, arms quaking with effort to hold him up off the dead ground. "~ Break these earthly chains and set the spirit free. The spirit free….~ the final line of the song rang out sweetly despite its negative effects it caused. With this last line sung, holy knights started dropping dead like flies left and right Having had all their energy sapped from them.

The army that had been brought to take in five of the eight deadly sins were withering away to nothing. "~Shadow cold and dark~" Guila gaped when the sin began to sing again, body trembling.

"~Make the final plea. Take the sands of time and set the spirit free~" Helbram clenched his teeth and attempted to push himself onto his feet but was unsuccessful. "I n-need more….strength." he said to himself. "~Wither and decay. End this destiny.~" whatever progress he had made to stand up was quickly ruined, Helbram had collapsed again. "~Break these earthly chains and set the spirit free. The spirit free….~"

Little did any of them know, there had been one soul who remained unaffected by the life-sucking song and its singer. Elizabeth couldn't believe what she was seeing. "I-is that really, lady Alfie?" she asked herself in disbelief.

Much to Hawk's chagrin, she had locked the pig inside the tavern after waiting for as long as she could and booked it back to Vaizel to help her new friends in anyway she could. The princess hadn't expected to stumble across the sight she did when she first heard the singing begin and the adverse affects it had on the town. It was like the town outside of the Necropolis all over but worse.

Nothing was alive or standing any more.

It was a miracle that the town residents had been evacuated before Aelfryth engaged in combat. "~Shadow cold and dark~ Make the final plea. Take the sands of time and set the spirit free~ Wither and decay ~ End this destiny, break these earthly chains and set the spirit free. The spirit free….~" the song was dark and morbid, and she was once again in awe of Alfie's powers. She's rendered an army of holy knights completely useless with a solitary song….did she even have a weakness?

Shaking her head, Elizabeth decided that now was not the time to be thinking about that. She needed to get Alfie so they could leave. "Lady Alfie!" Elizabeth cried out and began running towards her friend but had then been tackled abruptly before she got very far. Shaking her head, Elizabeth blinked and gaped at the sight of a weak looking Griamore on the ground with her.

"Big sister?" Elizabeth breathed out in disbelief. "Ellie." Veronica grimaced more than smiled back. "I knew...I would find….you here." she panted out with whatever little strength she had left. "Veronica...what are you doing here?!" Elizabeth rushed over and settled next to her in concern. "I'm here...to take you home of course. To get you away from these monsters." Veronica explained weakly.

"Monsters….the sins aren't monsters." Elizabeth shook her head passionately, "They're my friends who only want to help people!" the young princess cried. Veronica scoffed, "Help? Does any of this look like your friend is helping anyone?" she bit rhetorically. Elizabeth winced, knowing her sister was correct in that sense.

It did look rather bad to anyone but…." Wait. The song." Elizabeth's eyes widened in realization. "Wh-what?" Veronica asked through clenched teeth. "The song stopped." Elizabeth whispered and instinctively turned around to face where she last seen Aelfryth but ended up flinching backwards with a small scream.

Aelfryth was standing right there. Black soulless eyes baring down on the two nobles as inky black locks of hair weaved back and forth as if it had a mind of its own.

"L-lady Alfie?" Elizabeth squeaked, her voice tremoring against Elizabeth's will. The sin remained silent for a long moment, she merely stood there. Seeing this, Elizabeth cautiously made to get up but stopped when Aelfryth's mouth opened and words escaped past her lips that had Elizabeth's eyes widening in fright.

"~Shadow cold and dark~ Make the final plea. Take the sands of time and set the spirit free…~"