The Nymph's Redemption: Acantha's Journey (7ds fanfiction)

Chapter Thirty-Five: The Final Fight

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The demon king looked down at Acantha as she stared up at him. "Do you really think you could even think to take me down?" He questioned with a laugh. Acantha had a cocky look in her eye. "You ask that as if you'll be able to take ME down." She retorted. This angered the demon king as he went to send his sword down on her. Acantha dodged it and shot flaming balls of embers up at him. "Her power. It has a strange divine aura to it." Gowther commented. King stared and watched as Diane and Acantha tag teamed the demon king. He had a strange doubt to it all. A gut feeling told him that if it weren't for Acantha making that deal with Zeldris, a lot of this could have been prevented. And to antagonize him when she did. "Perhaps it was a gift from this goddess she has been talking about." Merlin suggested. King looked at them. "There is no goddess. The only thing that has changed in Acantha is her gaining a stronger will to fight. That with the pure adrenaline she's running on." He stated.

Acantha and Diane worked together to get the demon king on an empty and open platform high in the sky. This cut off the magic supply for the demon king. Escanor volunteered to fight alone against this monster. There were no objections once it was realized it was high noon and that Escanor was willing to sacrifice himself to save Britannia. As the battle raged on between Escanor and the demon king, Acantha stood by Meliodas' side. She could feel his hand protectively grab hers and assure her that he would keep her safe. The two exchanged small and hopeful smiles before watching the grousome fight between Escanor and the demon king.

It was a mystery how Escanor decided to burn away the last of his life force. It pained everyone to see Escanor destroying himself for the sake of humanity. He was just burning up the rest of his life force. Even as the sins begged him to stop, hoping there was a single chance to save their comrade from dying, Escanor didnt stop his actions. It took Meliodas, Ban and King to pause the fight. Escanor demanded they stopped and get out of his way. The sins couldn't just leave this be. Acantha stayed by Elizabeth and Gelda to protect them from the impact of the fight. The Seven Deadly Sins fought together for one last time as a full team.  It pained Acantha to watch this, though knew her task given by Meliodas was to keep the goddess and vampire women from being impacted by the battle. "Escanor.... To think we were having such a heart wrenching conversation today... I was hoping we would be able to converse like that a little longer... Please... Live..." She spoke to herself, knowing it wasn't possible for him to hear her.

Soon though, Zeldris and the demon king started to split apart. It put everyone on edge even further seeing this. Once Zeldris was saved and put into safe hands, the demon king wasn't done with this fight, and took corruption of the earth as a final means of protest. The sins knew they could fight this. The demon king was weak and could no longer fight. Meliodas looked at Acantha. "Heya. Think you can lend a hand?" He asked with a smile. The nymph seemed hesitant but knee she couldn't back down. With one nod, the group all stood together before running into their final battle. Adrenaline ran through their veins as they fought, giving it everything they had. With the strength of all the sins and Acantha, as well as Meliodas' constant strikes of full counter, the final strike made by the sin of wrath finally ended the demon king once and for all. As the earth crumbled and dust filled the air, Britannia's soil was no longer possessed by the demon king. It was silent. Acantha couldn't see anything and she felt weak. Her body felt ten times worse than usual.

"Oii Acantha. Wake up short stack." The voice of Ban said from above her. Acantha looked up at him weakly. "You look like hell. Come on up ya go." The sin of greed stated and picked her up by her arm, causing her to wince in pain. "Did you break something?? You don't have any visible wounds." He inspected her. "I'm just sore is all." Acantha responded.

After everyone regrouped and the commandments were destroyed, there was one last matter to attend to. Escanor was to pass away at any minute. His time was running out. Even with this happening, he was encouraging everyone to return home safely. Acantha looked up at him with tears in her eyes and a pain in her chest as the sin of pride said his final words. "Lady Acantha. Though we may have not known each other for so long, I believe I can consider you one of my close comrades. You have fought... So well through all of this. As if you were my own kin, my words to you are... I am so proud of you... I am so proud of how strong you have become. So please. Don't waste your tears on me. I hope you can live comfortably for eternity... I hope you can live with happiness and hold your head up high. I am so proud of you... Never forget that." He spoke so sweetly and caring. Acantha trembled as the salty tears ran down her cheeks, soft whimpers of despair coming from her lips. She desperately tried to wipe these tears from her face as she watched him perish.

As Escanor burned away in a bright flame, the embers flew around them all before finally leaving into the sky like fireflies flickering away.

The sins all left and returned to the tavern for much needed rest. All except for one. Acantha was sitting in her room, looking at herself in the mirror. The spots where Zeldris had struck her during their fight didnt seem normal. There was a dark purplish black spot covering the wounds. "It... Seems worse than usual... But... Everyone's happy now-" she was cut off when she heard tapping at her window. Acantha fixed her clothing and went to the window, seeing King floating there. She opened the window with a confused expression. "Wouldn't the door be more convenient?" She questioned. King didnt seem very pleased. "Follow me." He simply flew away from the window, seeing Acantha follow him from the ground.

The two made their way to an open field. Acantha was confused as to why they were there. "I'm surprised you aren't asleep. You seemed exhausted after the fight-" King didnt let her finish her sentence before sending his chastifol right at her. Acantha instinctively moved and grabbed the chastifol's handle. It was a struggle keeping it from moving to say the least. "What was that for King??" She questioned. King stared down at her. "Why did you make that deal with Zeldris?" The fairy asked sternly. Acantha was awestruck. "Why are you asking-" "Why did you make that deal?! If it weren't for you spilling that information to Zeldris Escanor wouldn't be dead!" King yelled at her. The ginger girl was shocked. She couldn't think of anything to say to him in response. "Even if there wasn't much of a chance for change, we still could have had a bigger chance to catch the demons by surprise! Now answer me... Why did you make that deal with Zeldris? Was it really for information on your past? Information about that damn goddess!" King exclaimed. The chastifol was yanked from Acantha's hands as it went to the fairy boy's side.

A certain anger and frustration seemed to fester in Acantha. "I could have been killed if I disagreed! He threatened me! That information part was only an option. Even after I refused the first time, Zeldris would have killed me if I refused!" She yelled back. King gave an unsatisfied expression. There were voices coming from the surrounding tree line. "Hey what's with the yelling?? King are you sleep walking again??" Diane asked, Gowther, Ban and Meliodas being behind her. King didnt pay much mind to it. "I highly doubt that you would have died. Judging by your fight with him, you seemed to have held up perfectly. I'd say if you hadn't been antagonizing Zeldris the way you were we wouldn't have had the trouble we did." He retorted down at the nymph. Acantha gave a slight glare. "Its not my fault for what happened to Escanor. Even he wouldn't blame me!" She yelled. The tension rose quickly. "Well Escanor is dead! So we can't be the judge of that now can we! Because you were selfish enough to agree to that deal with Zeldris so many lives were lost! And for what?! A goddess?! And hey! I just had a thought! Zeldris could have killed you immediately during your fight! Why aren't you dead huh?? Maybe you and him had a plan to ruin the plans of the sins from the first day you were here! You went face to face against the commandments who could easily destroy you but they didnt! Isn't that a bit suspicious?!" He yelled out and sent his sacred treasure down once more.

Before anyone could do anything, Acantha stopped the sacred spear again. A growl came from her as she was getting pushed back from the force of the chastifol in her hand. "Don't you dare accuse me of anything! I had nothing before meeting the sins! As far as I knew the fairy kings forest had been destroyed! Everyone I knew was dead and I was alone! After how kindly I was treated by you guys do you really think I would do ANYTHING to betray you?!" She used as much force and power as she could muster to throw the spear into the ground to keep it stuck. "Before you try and accuse me of faking my own intuition and goals. Of faking my loyalty to you, maybe you should focus on your stuck up attitude!" Acantha had small flames burning off of her hands and arms. It quickly went away as she calmed herself. "I don't expect kindness or forgiveness over being threatened into a deal. But I won't take you associating me with the death of Escanor."

And like that, Acantha started to leave and go back to the tavern. It was decided by her then and there, she would leave for the goddess temple at the break of dawn, whether it be alone or with the sins.
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Word Count: 1794