Eternity lasts forever (rewritten Ver.)

Chapter 21

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THIRD PERSON POV
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The silence that fell over the group was almost deafening.
Meliodas knew it too. All the memories he had of his middle brother was still there, but at the same time he knew that they never happened.
Estarossa wasn't his brother. Estarossa was Elizabeth's puppy dog!

It was enraging to think that Gowther had done that to him. To everyone. But at least Meliodas accepted it, unlike Mael who was still clutching his head, rejecting reality and clinging onto his fake existence.
"You lie!"

"I assure you I do not. And you know" Gowther said, continuing to be as calm as ever.
Estarossa let out another shout, but this time it seemed to be completely out of pain.

"Can't we do something!?" King asked, terrified of what he was watching, and not completely understanding what was going on at all. He had no idea who Mael was, as did neatly everyone else.

"No, Mael is currently rejecting the truth, but that doesn't mean he's open to any attacks" Meliodas explained, his voice shaking ever slightly as it was strange to call him Mael once again.
But Meliodas's words didn't continue to be true for long, because with a wail Mael seemed to let out an explosion of darkness, nearing knocking everyone to the ground, but then wings sprouted from his back. Goddess wings covered in back demon markings.
Shifting back his darkness weakened for just a moment and the cloud above his dispersed, letting Elizabeth calm to the ground behind him.

Everyone saw this as their chance to take him down.

Meliodas was the first one to move, running with lightning fast speed, not to attack Mael but rather to pick up Elizabeth and get her away from him.
Without any trouble he got her and tried to wake her up from her sleep, not e having in the battle like everyone else.

"Hey...wake up. Elizabeth!" Meliodas called to her and stroked her cheek. To him it looked like she was only sleeping, but he worried that Mael had put some kind of spell over her.
Luckily that didn't seem to be the case as Elizabeth stirred and woke up, immediately in tears.

"Meliodas..I-I had no idea that...that Estarossa was actually Mael"

"I know...I know..." Meliodas held her tight as he don't even know ear to say.
But then the fighting took a turn, and he easily noticed.
Mael was going after Gowther in particular and he was keeping him pinned against the steps with his heel digging into his head. He was gonna break him.

"You can't even feel the pain! How am I supposed to get revenge on a doll!" Mael had a quite terrifying look on his face as he spoke.

"We have to help" Elizabeth pushed to stand up, but before they found do anything to Help Gowther King had forced Mael off of him.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

The battle continued for what felt like hours, and Mael truly seemed unbeatable.
Everyone had to an extend been injured, and Elizabeth could barely keep up as she also fought.

"Mael you have to stop! This isn't you!" Elizabeth begged the man she once called one if he best friends. She knew him, and although he had been regarded a killer by the demons, Mael truly wasn't a evil person.

"How do you know!" Mael shouted and cried while he fought against the attacks coming from all sides.
"I've been through so much!!" He cried, and truly Elizabeth understood where he was coming from. His entire identity had been ripped away from him.
"This is who i am now!"

That was exactly what Elizabeth had hoped he wouldn't say, because it meant that they were doing Derieri's plan.
"I'm sorry Mael" she mumbled as she then shot a powerful light magic right at him, pinning him to one of the pillars, but he was also a goddess, so while an attack like that did hurt him it wound take longer for it to kill him, so that was what Derieri was for.