Answers, More Questions/Inuyasha vs Meliodas

Jasmine serves tea and/or coffee to Elizabeth, Zel, Ban and Hawk inside her office. Wild, who's way too big to fit through door, looks in from the connecting Sancturary and also excepts a large bowl of tea. (Hawk said his brother's had too much coffee for one day). She takes out what looks like a scroll the length of her desk, and a few notes. Jade sleeps peacefully in Elizabeth's lap, while Melidy's all snuggled up next to Hawk and Beatrice sleeps in her stroller.

"You two already knew she was a volcano lady?" Ban ask the pigs.

"Of course, we knew;" answers Hawk; "I guess we didn't think to mention that."

Jasmine talks a sit, facing her guests. "As you knew, my full name is Jasmine Omarosa De Santis. I'm a vulacish, same as the girl you met in Britannia. The name she goes by is Nuria Shila, or Nuri for short."

"Lilith;" Elizabeth says underneath her breath.

"You mean you actually know that manic?" asks Zeldris.

"What the hell is a vulacish?" ask Ban; "Excuse my language, Pastor."

Jaz nods in understanding; "We are humans blessed with the powers connected to the magma of the earth. In other words, we have the powers of a volcano."

Based on what they have seen of their powers, Zeldris and Ban feel some concerned, and it seemed as if Jasmine is at a much higher power-level then Nuri had been. However, they don't feel the slightest hint of malicious or evil within this person. Still, it might be a good idea to stay on her good side.

"Would you mind telling us what business one of you would have in Britannia?" ask Zeldris.

Jaz nods; "Actually, we were supposed to go to Britannia with Nuri, but...she may still believe that we're dead."

The trio gasps hearing that. Wild and Hawk already knew. Ban recalls hearing from one of the girls that Scout and Jaz had only recently returned and had been greatly missed.

"What happened?" ask Elizabeth.

"Did you both really die?" adds Ban.

"Almost, but no. We were trapped in one of the purgatory dimensions. It took us 19 months to escape. We laid low for a couple of months then finally returned home. We sent letters and messages to Nuri and others informing them, and they responded back several times. At least...that's what I thought."

The Britannians look at each other in shock, including Hawk and Wild. Ban is skeptical. "Are you telling me that the two of you actually survived purgatory and escaped? Are you two immortal or something?"

Jaz giggles a little. "No, vulacishes can survive the harsh conditions of purgatory due to our volcanic nature, well barely."

Ban is completely amazed by that, if it's true. "What about Scout?"

"She's...special. Anyway, the reason we were going to Britannia was to retrieve the Stone of Destiney?"

"What's that?" ask Elizabeth.

Jasmine unrolls the scroll; it looks like a huge map. "It's a long story, but the stone is actually one of five pieces that were scattered to different parts of the globe about 5,000 years ago."

The Britannians rise their eyes. "And what does that have to do with finding the others?" ask Zeldris.

"Just listen." Jasmine points to a point on the map; "The stone was originally placed here. Today it's called 'the Valley of the Kings and Queens' near Lexor, Egypt."

"Egypt?!" says Ban; "That's where those two weirdos are supposed to be from."

"Is that where Gelda and Meliodas are?" ask Zeldris.

"That's one possibility;" answers Jaz. "For reasons unknown, Princess Scotia of Egypt removed the stone from its chamber and fled with her husband, all the way to Britannia. Recent events have forced us to try and collect the relics. When the transport salt activated, we believe it reacted to the power of the stone, quite possibility sending everybody to the locations of the remaining relics, or at least where they were supposed to be. Plus, each location is connected by trans-dimensional water gates."

All is quiet for a moment. Everybody is stunned and looks at each other. Finally, Elizabeth speaks; "Where are these other locations? Is that where Scout has gone?"

Jasmine nods, then points out the locations on the map, including Britannia's. Everybody, including the pigs, are shocked and amazed at how large Earth actually is. "My sister is headed to the churches in Alexandera and Cario to discover if our messages are being intersected and not delivered. We also know somebody there who possess magic to locate people. I've been trying to make contact with our friend in Tibet, but she hasn't answered back yet. Japan's much harder to make contact with, especially with its distance and all the volcanic activity, but Carmine should be able to contact them."

She also informs them that the gate headed for Egypt has a couple of branches that leads to other parts of North African for unknown reasons. Ban, Elizabeth, and Zeldris have many questions. Jasmine answers as much as she's willing, but it's obvious she's not revealing everything about their mission, including the fact that they originally planned to come to Britannia 21-months earlier. They ask her if she plans to join Scout. She intends to, but she also has her sisters to worry about and defend their home with the recent attacks and volcanic activity. What really matters, however, is that these are possible leads to their loved ones, which gives them lots of hope. Ban also ask if they were gone 19 months in purgatory time or Earth time. She looks at him like that was a stupid question.

"Ah Ban," says Hawk; "Purgatory's time synchronized with Earth's time."

"What?" ask Ban; "When did that happen? How?"

"Hawk;" says Jaz. "There are nine different purgatory dimensions. We weren't in the Britannian branch. However, time should be the same in all of them, as on Earth. We think that Barbatos presence effected the time flaw in your purgatory."

"Who?" ask Ban

"Barbatos?" says Wild; "I think...I...remember...Oh yes! That was the proper name of the Demon King."

Ban and Elizabeth are perplexed. Zeldris is in utter shock.

"You mean to tell us that Zel and Cap'n dad's name was Barbatos? Cap'n never told us that."

"I've never heard him been referred to as anything except Demon King, and of course Father by Meliodas;" informs Elizabeth. As a matter of fact, Elizabeth never learned if her mother ever had a name besides Supreme Deity.

Zeldris is silent with a shocked look on his face. Finally, he speaks; "How...when..., is that what you call my father? Where did that name come from?"

Jasmine is surprised; "It's in writing from several sources. That's also what the demons we know call him."

Zeldris just sits there beside himself. He can't believe that people outside of Britannia know the name of his own father when he didn't. He didn't even know that his father had an actual name. Does Meliodas know? Probably not.

Jasmine rolls up the scroll and puts the notes back in her desk. She can hear footsteps running down the hall as 5-year-old Emily and 8-year-old Mia knock on the door. "Hawky, piggyback;" say Emily jumping for joy.

Hawk gets up; "Yea, they haven't had one since last night. Honestly, how did these girls ever manage without me. And who will give them rides when I go back to Britannia." As if on que, Beatrice wakes up and climbs out of her stroller, ready for a ride. Mia reminds Jasmine that it's time to start supper and that they've already set the table.

"Alright, I'm coming, that's all I've got for now anyway. We'll find your loved ones, I'm sure of it."

Elizabeth and Ban, holding Jade and Melidy, just look at each other for a while, trying to process everything they've just learned. Ban asks the goddess if the Supreme Deity had a first name, she doesn't know.

"I know this is probably a weird question to ask;" says Ban; "but did you have, an original father Elizabeth?"

"Yes;" she answers, "he was actually one of the original archangels. His name was Michael, but he lost favor in my mother's eyes even before my birth. She had him executed for supposed treason before I could remember him because he disagreed with the Holy War and was trying to make a peace with the demon clan behind her back. He was replaced with Mael."

Zeldris overhears that and it acts like an additional stab in his heart because Elizabeth knows of her birth father, but he doesn't have the slightest clue who his birth mother was. He remembers hearing a few stories of the great archangel Michael. He was one of the few goddesses the demon realm seemed to respect. He was known even among the demons as being kind, gentle while still assertive and strong, but also thoughtful and reasonable, like Elizabeth herself. Zel wonders if she got her nature, as well as her blue eyes, from her birth father. She certainly didn't get them form her mother.

There were also rumors that Michael was actually a human-goddess hybrid, son of one of the children of Adam and Eve. Those are just rumors, however.

"Zel," says Ban; "What about yours and Cap'n..."

Elizabeth gentle nudges Ban not to finish that question and they go to the kitchen. Zeldris looks at Jasmine as she locks her office. If everything she's said is true, he wonders what else she knows. And how?

"Jaz, so you have a minute?"

"Yes." She sure what he's going to ask her.

"Uh..." Zel scratches the back of his head; "How old are you?"

"24. No, I'm not a reincarnation at all."

Definitely seems like she is reading Zel's mind. "Where did, never mind that. Do you know about my mother?"

Jasmine's face softens. She lowers her eyes and gives the very slightest nod.

"YOU KNOW! Don't you! Who was she? What was her name? How can you possibly know all this?"

Jasmine just looks thoughtfully for a minute, then motions for Zeldris to follow her behind the huge wooden cross in the back of the Sancturary. She removes a brick from the wall and takes out a notebook. "Ir...Scout wanted to give this to you when the time was right. I believe now is that time."

"Scout? What do you mean? What does she have to do with this?" He takes the book and opens it. It looks like a journal written in his language.

"Please refrain from judgment until you read through to the end;" says the pastor.

"Sister Jaz;" Cloe calls in Greek; "That dragon beast has returned and wants to know what squid you'd recommend. He also wants to know what happened to his sisters. I told him you'd help him. His name is Goro by the way."

Jasmine rolls her eyes. Cloe has the ability to communicate with magical beast.

"Please tell him I'm already working on finding his sisters. And I recommend the calamari, but that's surely way too small for him. Tell him to feast on those Mediterranean Humboldt squids 40 miles out at sea. They'll be close enough to the surface about sunset."

Zeldris just stares as they exit the Sancturary. He doesn't know what to make of all Jasmine has just told them. He feels a tug coming on inside of him. Logically, he wonders if these ladies can be trusted. However, something inside him tells him that it's all true. Barbatos? How come nobody ever told him his father's name? Did anybody in any of Britannia's connecting realms know? Wild did. Maybe there really is somebody still alive that knows the truth. The current demon king has so many questions, even questioning his own identity. He looks at the journal, with its soft pink and blue color pattern, opens it and starts reading.

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Gowther and company find the headquarters of the Copic Church. At first Gowther asked the ladies to stay outside just in case anything "strange" is going on, but they insisted on coming inside. They enter the church and find a several people inside praying, meditating, or simply listening to the beautiful music from the organ. A man comes up to them whom they assume is a priest. Margaret decides to ask in Greek if they could see Archbishop Abanoub.

"The archbishop's not available at the moment. Please state your business."

"This may sound strange Father;" says Margaret in imperfect Greek; "but we were told in this note by a stranger that we should come here to find our missing friends. We are from the land of Britannia, and we believe people from your church were in our homeland a few days ago."

The priest seems surprised by this news, then surprises the group by speaking in 'their' language!

"You, you speak our language?!" asks both a shocked Guila and Jericho.

"I do;" replies the priest; "We have a small community of Britannian seniors that settled here after immigrating from the plague 60 years ago. My father was from there."

The Britannians can't believe their luck. Perhaps everything going on is of divine intervention. The priest asks them again to describe why they are there in more detail. They tell him that three supposed members of their church appeared in their homeland, one with suspected volcano-based powers, one with suspected high-level of gravity power, and one who was apprehended at the Avalon monastery who was said to have a language amulet and may have the power to change his clothes. They also tell them that about a dozen of their friends are missing and are believed to have been transported by transport witch-hazel salt, which they themselves used to come here. The priest immediately knows which three they may be talking about.

"That sounds like Nuria Shila the reincarnated vulacish, Herman the idiot harpy who's serving 5-years of service with the church, and his human cousin-in-law who's his assigned supervisor/companion. They must have removed the restriction anklets from Herman."

"We don't care who they are;" says Jericho; "We want to know how to get our friends back."

"Do you know why they might have been in Britannia in the first place;" ask Gowther. The priest tries not to stare rudely at Gowther, suspecting him to be male despite his attire, and tells them that he has no idea.

"What was this note you said someone gave you?" he asks. Gowther hands him the two notes. He studies the notes, written in perfect Britannian. He shakes his head. "I'm afraid I've never heard of this Amalfi Orthodox Chapel in Naples. I know there's a large Catholic Cathedral there. I will inform the archbishop right away. Wait here please."

The priest goes to the archbishop's office and knocks on the door. His personal secretary answers. "Reverend Abanoub is still in conference Reverend Thomas."

"Is he still in tele-conference with the archbishops in Cario and Luxor?"

"He is?"

"Please tell him this may be urgent. I think that three of Reverend Aza's people are involved in something strange. And hand him these notes please. He may know about this place in Naples."

The secretary accepts the notes and as respectfully as possible interrupts Reverend Abanoub's conference. He asks her to repeat the part about the three from Cario. The archbishop in Cario speaks through the magic tele-line (through a crystal ball) that they left for their mission behind his back and that he's being searching for them for 2 days. Reverend Abanoub immediately sends for the Gowther's group. The secretary then hands him the notes. He reads them and gasp for breath. He stays in stunned silence for a minute.

"Reverend Meta-Aza, you need to see this. I wonder if it means what I think it may mean."

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Inuyasha's sword, Tessaiga, clashes repeatedly with Meliodas's dark matter swords. Every time the Japanese half-human, half-demon thinks he makes a hit on the dragon sin, his dark matter, which is dark purple instead of its usual black (as are his eyes) keeps moving to block the attacks. Whenever the demon attacks, Inuyasha's sword protects him, as well as using the sheath of Tassaiga, which is a weapon in itself. Meliodas seems to have lost almost all sense of thinking and rationalization and is operating on pure animalistic impulsive. He does, however, seems to remember Full Counter and strikes Inuyasha back with it twice using the third shard to activate it. The half-demon suffers only moderate injuries thanks to his protection and his superfast agile reflexes. However, Meliodas proves to be stronger and faster than Inuyasha, and none of the half-demon's attacks leaves even the slightest mark. Inuyasha has faced many powerful demons in his lifetime, especially recently, but Meliodas seems to be different from any of them.

Willie tries to stay out of range of the two. He's already had to pull a couple of children and dogs, who were part of a traveling caravan, out of danger. He gives his magic barrier item for the caravan to use to protect themselves as they run for it. He's also hidden the sword inside his bag so Meliodas can't see it. He's seen humanoid demons and others lose control and go berserk before, however; he realizes that's not what's happening to Meliodas. It's those jewel shards that are doing this. Willie can wrap his threads around himself for some protection. He's yelling out the few Japanese words and phrases that he knows, but Inuyasha doesn't appear to hear him nor paying much attention to him except to protect him from any of the dragon sin's attacks. The half-demon won't slow down long enough for Willie to use the amulet on him, so there's seemly nothing he can do to help at the time being. If only he could get through to Meliodas or get that Japanese half-demon to listen to him. Inuyasha successfully hands on to his weapons while avoiding a direct physical hit from the possessed demon for a while, realizing he'd have a difficult time with a one-on-one raw fight, not that's ever stopped him before. Their fight has created not one, but two deep craters. Thankfully Luxor is just out of range of the battle to take any direct hits as the two drift closer to the Valley of the Kings and Queens. The nearby valley also seems to be protecting itself automatically with its own barrier, as if the place has a mind of its own.

Inuyasha finds an opening and cuts off Meliodas's left hand, which contains one of the shards. However, Meliodas hand immediately reattaches itself with dark purple matter from many feet away, which shocks the half-demon as he's never seen that. On top of that, the third shard gets stuck in Meliodas' hand, increasing his power even more and making him go even more berserk. Willie takes off on the magic carpet to go back to Luxor for help. Unfortunately, Meliodas notices and hits the carpet with a blast, destroying it and sending the monk to into the sand. Meliodas then lands next to Willie and forms another sword. However, he misses Willie completely, stares at him with those dark purple coal eyes, then proceeds to slice up a large desert lizard instead. Willie wonders if Meliodas is subconsciously trying to not hurt him. Inuyasha was about to activate his Wind Scar again with a plan in mind when he notices that Willie is too close to the demon. Meliodas forms a huge mass sword and slices a huge, diagonal gash from Inuyasha's left shoulder blade, across his chest down to his hip. If not for Tessaiga's protection, the half-demon would've been sliced in half. Now struggling due to his injury, Meliodas knocks the Tessaiga out of Inuyasha's hand, as well as the sheath. He stands over the heavily bleeding half-demon and slowly forms another sword to slice him. Willie throws his treads to get Inuyasha out of the way when he suddenly puts his claws into the dragon sin's abdomen. With an intense increase in power, Inuyasha leaps on his onto his feet. His eyes are now blood red, his fangs and claws are longer, and the look on his face says blood lust. Inuyasha has gone full demon mode and slashes Meliodas repeatedly with his claws, actually managing to get bloody scratches on him the dragon sin before his demon matter moves enough to protect him. It does nothing to slow him down, however, and they continue to engage in a brutal fight. Inuyasha is much faster now and seems to be getting stronger with each passing second. They even manage to break through barrier that was protecting the sacred valley and crash into a stone structure.

Willie feels helpless. This is one of those rare times he wishes Herman was here. Then he sees Inuyasha's sword several feet away. It has reverted back to ordinary, beaten-up rusty katana form. On a hunch, Willie thinks he needs to get it back into Inuyasha's hand. That would be much easier said than done, but he runs toward the fight. Inuyasha notices him and rushes towards the monk with a killer intent. Meliodas jumps on top of the half-demon and looks at Willie, not moving. Inuyasha throws the dragon sin off of himself.

"HEY YOU!" Willie gets Inuyasha's attention and throws the sword at him. Instinctively, Inuyasha catches it. Suddenly, his blood starts to cool down and he starts to struggle with himself. Meliodas returns for him. Willie has an idea.

"MELIODAS! ELIZABETH! THINK OF ELIZABETH!"

Meliodas stops in his tracks momentary. He looks around but doesn't see his beloved and returns to his advance. However, it's long enough for Inuyasha to return to normal and regain his sense. He jumps out of the way, grabbing Willie as well, while Meliodas crashes into the rocky ground. Inuyasha's chance as come. He unleashes the Tessaiga, which has return to its powered up, five-foot fang form.

"Wind Scar!"

Meliodas picks up a rock and uses Full Counter. This time, Inuyasha is ready.

"That's exactly what I wanted." Waving Tessaiga, Inuyasha wraps the reflected wind scar around himself into a tornado.

"Backlash Wave!"

Several whirlwinds attack Meliodas from all directions, finally overwhelming him. The force of the attack knocks all three shards out of Meliodas, returning to normal, then he collapses. The battle, however, has weakened the ground under them, and they all soon collapse underground.