Nuri's Agony

Merlin, Diane, King, Ban, Jasmine, Arwin, and Hana all emerge from a freshly dug hole into the darkness. Merlin, King, and Jasmine all use their powers to light up the place. The group is a bit wet and a little muddy. Arwin soon realizes where they are, they are inside the very lower lever of the fortress, which used to be a torture and isolation level for the worst prisoners when this place was a prison. Arwin's been down here only a few times before at the insistence of her more adventurous sisters but has always hated coming down here. Apolline comes down here frequently as this is one of her favorite spots to meditate. While the level isn't entirely off limits, most people inside the fortress either don't know that this level even exist or just don't care, or don't believe the rumors or don't want to take their chances down here.

"This place looks much worse than Boestic Prison;" informs Ban, actually feeling pity for the tortured souls who have come through here, feeling like he'd rather go back to purgatory them endure some of the obvious tortures type that are still intact. Merlin has heard stories of this infamous prison but never knew that she'd actually get to explore it. She wonders away from the group and starts to touch a form of old torture chains.

"Don't touch those!" Arwin blurts out; "Don't touch anything! They're dangerous if you don't know what they are, even for high-ranking demons and goddesses."

"Did you just say that you and your sisters come down here regularly?" ask King.

"I don't. Stormy loves adventure, Apolline just likes damp, dark, gloomy places to pray and meditate. You should see her room. I'm more of tending to the gardens and nature hike type of girl."

"Hana NO!" Diane barely stops a curious Hana from getting strayed by some acid, getting strayed herself, including her face and eyes. The ancient sulfur magic acid actually burns Diane, and she screams loudly. King quickly Diane gets his wife out of the way and starts healing her. Jasmine takes the rest of the acid herself and burns it before it can affect her. Merlin is curious and touches the acid, it actually burns her hand.

"Diane, are you alright?" ask King. She's feeling better, but her first concern is for human child Hana, whom fortunately was spared from the acid thanks to the serpent sin. The child says she's sorry in Japanese, which Merlin understand and translates to her comrade. Diane embraces the little girl. 

King has been observing his wife with Hana and is thinking what an excellent mother she's going to make.

"That's why I said don't touch anything;" says Arwin; "Most of this stuff hasn't been touched for centuries. Even Stormy knows better than to mess with this stuff."

"Where's the exit;" ask Ban.

"Oh, it's this way. Follow me, if you trick a trap down here, it may be bad news."

Merlin feels something and stops walking. "Wait, we're not alone down here."

Jasmine and King some feel the presence as well. "Arwin, is there something sinister down here?"

"Just the ROUS, Rodents of Unusual Size. Their no match for us."

"Did you just say Rodents of Unusual Size?" asks Diane cringing. She hates rodents almost as much as she does bugs, even though she shouldn't. Just then, one of them jumps her and she goes haywire, beating that nasty 5 ft rat to death in an overkill. A couple dozen more of those ROUS jump the group, but they are easily defeated and soon stir clear of them. Arwin leads them through this torture chamber, and they aren't too far from the exit when Jasmine gasps and calls holt. The others too soon feel something sinister but it's very unfamiliar to them, they aren't alone down here, and these people are proposedly triggering an ancient supernatural lava ooze that could challenge even Jasmine and turn the Rous into worthy opponents.

"Oh no;" says Jasmine; "Prepare for battle NOW!"

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Meliodas is struggling to function through an indoor super sand and windstorm, and facing not one, but two sand mages and a wind mage. He and Willie had long since lost track of the druid when a bunch of chaos exploded all around them. It seems that every time they turn a corner, somebody or something is there ready to fight. This is the 5th battle in a row, but the dragon sin has noticeably been having fun. The first fight had actually been with one of those giant fire boars and another strange animal that had both been injected with powerful enhancing drugs. However, they really weren't much of challenge at all for Meliodas, yet he decided to have some fun with the poor animals by tonting them with the little meat and bones left from the roasted boar he'd been eating, then quickly consuming it all except for one bone to use as a weapon. He quickly defeated the animals with one punch.

The next three fights were fairly easy for the demon as well, yet he purposely prolonged and dragged out the battles by toying with his opponents and giving then false hope all for the for fun of it. Willie is in dismay and quite disappointed with Meliodas, who still isn't taking these fights seriously. However, Willie stills feels that the dragon sin will turn serious when he really, really has to, but his tendency to have fun with weaker opponents is very annoying indeed. 

This 5th battle with the sand and wind mages, while definitely not on the same power level as Meliodas, has been much trickier for him due to the fact that he can't see and can barely breath through all this sand and hurricane force winds. His eyes and nose are getting irritated and are even burning, and he tries to keep his mouth covered with the cloak. The mages are wearing goggles and breathing masks, using their trickery, as well as clones, to confuse the dragon sin. Willie is staying connected to Meliodas with his threads, so they don't get separated. Since Willie is used to these conditions, he can function better through the sandstorm and helps guide Meliodas. They both eventually zero in on the magic presence of one of the sand mages and take him out. Willie manages to grab a set of goggles from him and hands them to Meliodas, who can now function a bit better without the sand getting into his eyes. Using the bone as a weapon, Meliodas uses Enchanted Hellblaze to wipe out the clones and hits the mages, sending them both through several walls.

Meliodas and Willie quickly find a way out of that room and can finally breath properly, spending a moment coughing and getting the sand off themselves. Meliodas especially has it bad.

"Man, this is fun and all, but it's starting to get annoying. I'm not even sure if these people are really after us or attacking anybody they come across. It's ridiculous."

Of course, the monk currently can't understand the demon, but Meliodas smiles at him and holds out his fist, expecting a fists bump. Willie looks at him awkwardly, not knowing what a fist bump is. "You don't want to fist bump with me? How about a high five." Willie does know what that is and gives the demon one as well as a little smile. The monk then gets a sudden feeling and looks the other way. Meliodas feels small magic, but it doesn't feel very strong to him. Willie recognizes the unmagical energy give-off of another presence, which Meliodas can't sense.

"Nuri!" He grabs Meliodas by the wrist. The dragon sin allows himself to be lead. They soon entire a strange, large open area, which looks like an indoor training and sports facility. Nuri is fighting with two goddesses and a demon slayer, not Ching Liang, but a different one. She is currently out of power but can still put up a heck of a fight. Non the less, she's got several bloody cuts and bruises and several minor injuries, mostly from the slayers weapons that are designed to be affective against demons. Without warning, Meliodas jumps in front of her, takes the next attacks himself, then taunts the attackers (even though they don't understand his language).

Nuri is furious. "I DON'T NEED ANY HELP!"

"You're welcome;" replies Meliodas sarcastically.

The goddesses use magical attacks. Meliodas holds up the bone about to use Full Counter, but Nuri, refusing to back down, pushes him out of the way and takes even further damage (while the red cloak has some minor damage, her black throb underneath automatically repairs itself if it suffers any rips or tears.) Willie, staying as far out of range as he can, is shocked by her action, even though he's seen her do it several times before.

"What the heck are you doing?" asks Meliodas; "I had them."

Nuri refuses to answer and prepares to resume the fight. Meliodas grabs her and throws her towards Willie, managing to use Full Counter to reflect one of the attacks and hits one goddess, but gets chipped by the other goddess's attack as his calculation was only very slightly off as he was throwing the vulacish out of the way. The demon slayer attacks with anti-magic matter from a device, however, while Meliodas is unable to reflect this, to his surprise the cloak actually protects him from it. Realizing this, the demon smiles and confidently jumps in front of the slayer, who seems stunned as he's actually not used to a target getting so close. Meliodas immediately punches through his defense weapon and knocks out the slayer. The final goddess tries to get the jump on Meliodas, but he immediately senses it and gets the jump on him instead. As the dragon sin gives a little sarcastic mock speech to the defeated goddesses, he sees Nuri literally beating the hell out of the slayer.

"Hey whoa!" He grabs her and pulls her off the badly beaten-up slayer, the vulacish kicking and screaming like a child. "That's very overkill. Calm down."

Nuri punches Meliodas in the face, but without her volcanic powers behind it, even her superhuman strength can't protect her from cracking the bones in her hand. Meliodas, unaffected, lets her go but is unable to reason with her. She just repeatedly punches him as if he was a punching back. Willie normally knows not to interfere when she's like this, but he tries to get her to stop. She punched the monk in the face, and he falls to flat to the floor. She gasps in horror at the thought of hurting him and knees down next to Willie. His noise is bleeding and may be crushed, but he's conscious and showing no signs of trauma.

Meliodas is concerned too and wants to know if Willie's alright. Nuri almost spontaneously embraces the monk but quickly herself catches and moves away. Willie slowly gets up and turns away from her. This is driving Meliodas nuts, it's beyond obvious that there's way more than just a few sparks between these two. Deciding that he'd better help nudge things along, he quickly grabs both of them and forces them to face each, just a mere inch away from actually touching. They both just stare frozen at each other in awkward silence. Meliodas shakes his head and pats both of them on the back. Willie says something to him as if he's irritated, and Nuri grabs him by the shirt and yells at him in Arabic.

"What's wrong with you two? Stop resisting already. You two obviously have the hots for each other."

Nuri in furry throws him at the wall and punches a complete hole through the floor. "Stay out of our business Meliodas! You have no right!"

Meliodas gets up. "I'm sorry, I was just trying to help."

"You don't understand! You don't care enough to understand! Not now nor 3,000 years ago."

Meliodas gasps in confusion. "What do you mean 3,000 years ago? Were you alive then?" Suddenly he notices a photo on the floor. It's a copy of the same exact photo that Merlin had of herself and her sister. Merlin had made another copy for her before they left Carmine's, and Nuri agreed to accept it. She had long since forgotten what she had originally looked like, as her looks and voice have changed and adapted over time as she traveled the world and lived amongst different populations (unlike Elizabeth who always looked and sounded exactly the same with each incarnation.)

Meliodas picks up the photo. The older girl looks exactly like Merlin in her 10-year-old child form. He even says that out loud. Nuri tries to snatch it back as he keeps staring at it, assuming it's just another girl who looks identical to the boar sin. He notices the younger girl in the picture. She looks similar to Merlin, but her eyes are violet, and hair is sandy blonde and longer than Merlin's. Nuri snatches the photo back, fighting back tears. They can hear Willie mumble. Despite being without the language amulet, Willie guesses what's going on and tells Nuri perhaps she should tell Meliodas the truth. She's very reluctant to do so, not fully trusting the dragon sin and not wanting him any further in her business. Willie, being one of the only people whom she has ever revealed her full past too, disagrees and believes Meliodas would understand.

Meliodas sneezes hysterically after hearing his name. "Damn. Are you guys talking about me? Shouldn't you be talking about your feelings? Better yet, acting on them."

"ENOUGH!!" shout Nuri; "You don't understand Meliodas. Wildelfredico can't....."

"Can't what? I'm sorry, I really didn't mean to upset you. I just don't like seeing people making themselves miserable for not acknowledging their...."

"WILLIE WILL DIE!" 

Meliodas is shocked. "WHAT?! What do you mean...he better not be dying anytime soon. He's not cursed is he?"

There's genuine concern in demon's voice. Maybe he isn't as egocentric as he once was, despite Nuri not having been convinced otherwise up until now.

"I'm cursed Meliodas. Anybody who develops romance feelings for me will die in front of me."

The dragon sin's mouth drops wide open. It takes him a few seconds to reply. "Anybody?" Meliodas notices Willie whipping a tear. The monk turns so he's not facing them.

"Anybody;" answers Nuri. "I'm cursed with eternal reincarnation just like Elizabeth was. I grew up alongside her in the exact same savage tribe after our original deaths. Unlike Elizabeth, my memoirs are always intact, and I have no time limit for my deaths. Plus, nobody can fall in love with me...or...they die."

Meliodas is in shock about that last part. "I...I can't believe it. Who could possibly hate you enough to curse you like that?"

Nuri takes out her memory orb. "Meliodas, do you remember that day, when you saved (Merlin's real name) from those demon beasts?"

Meliodas needs to think about that one as he actually has no real memory of that day, even before some of his memories were erased. He only knows of that event because the Lady of the Lake had told them. "Who? That name does sound kind of familiar, I think."

"Merlin. I'm talking about Merlin. You and Zeldris saved us both that day. Merlin became fixated on you after that, and I developed a precocious crush on Zeldris. I'm Merlin's sister!"

Meliodas's jaw drops open, and his eyes bug out. "I'll bet the next thing you're going to tell me is that Elizabeth has some missing relatives out here."

Meliodas was being sarcastic, and Nuri doesn't humor him. "Actually, Meliodas she does."

Meliodas nearly chocks on his saliva. Nuri speaks again before he has the chance to say anything. "If you're wondering how and why, it's because of war Meliodas. War divides and tears apart families, communities, clans, nations, even religious groups. It turns brother against brother and friend against friend. That's how all our families got divided and scattered across the globe. It's not surprising that you and Elizabeth never learned about your relatives.

Meliodas feels like he's brain's about to fry. He takes a few deep breathes and puts his hand on his head. This all just too much to process. Non the less, Nuri activates her memory orb, and Meliodas looks into it. While he processes little of it, he's in tears by the end. She's telling the truth. There's absolutely no way she could've known the exact details of his and Elizabeth's time in the savage and her death. He can't believe that even Barbatos and Caelestis would curse anybody like "that", especially a child who was completely innocent and had absolutely nothing at all to do with the holy war. This only increases his anger towards Caelestis, and he's more determined than ever to destroy her for good. He then remembers that her memories revealed that not that long ago she almost agreed to allow Iris to remove her curse. 

"What a minute, if Iris can remove the curse, why doesn't she?"

"Because I won't let her;" informs Nuri.

Meliodas doesn't understand. "You won't let her? Why not?"

"Meliodas, I ran away from the Son of God! I don't deserve to have my curse lifted. I deserve to walk this world alone until the day of Judgement, or if I sacrifice myself to the chaos gate, which will end my curse and I can finally leave this dreadful existence behind and go to heaven, even though I deserve to burn in the flames of hell."

"NO, YOU DON'T!" shouts Meliodas; "Enough already! Stop all this nonsense. Believe me, I perfectly understand wanting to end this life and leave this existence behind, and I do look forward to going to heaven someday now that I know that me and Elizabeth will, but I no longer believe this life is just something to throw away. I finally see it as a blessing and that's why I don't waste a single minute of it. I didn't understand many things or why it had to take so long to lift our curses, but now I actually believe there was reason for it and the timing was actually perfect. You're obviously a woman of faith; don't you believe that?"

"Meliodas, I said I don't deserve..."

"SHUT UP! You've already been forgiven, you must learn to forgive yourself and stop taking on a burden that isn't yours to bear. You're not alone anymore, stop acting like you are."

Nuri can't believe it. That's exactly the same thing both Iris and Jasmine said to her two years ago. She had almost accepted it and forgiven herself, but when she believed they had died and blamed herself for it, she hated herself even more.

"Besides;" Meliodas continues with a smile; "Isn't there somebody here who's worth living for a little while longer for, curse free and all?"

Nuri looks down but slightly glances at Willie. Even though the monk can't understand Britiannian, he can tell that Meliodas is being serious and he seems to be connecting with her, which both surprises and delights him. 

"Nuri;" Meliodas continues; "I'm so sorry for not noticing you in the past. I'm sorry that I didn't care enough to notice. I honestly don't remember much from that period, but it is true that I was so absorbed by mine and Elizabeth's problems I really didn't care about anything else. Will you forgive me?"

Nuri tries to disguise the fact that she's touched, then all three of them gasps. They can feel something very bad coming, and the prepare themselves for a serious battle.

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Inyuasha is in a completely different part of the fortress, sniffing the ground on all fours like a canine. He's had a few skirmishes of his own and is now wearing a red cloak he got off one of the defeated foes he defeats. Despite the chaos and his constant urge to fight, he has single target in mind and has been following his trail for hours. Eyelash seems to always stay just one step ahead of him. The half-demon has some regret of going off on his own but initially thought that it wouldn't take long at all to catch that llama and get the language amulet back. Inuyasha has swallowed his pride and admits to himself that he probably needs help to reclaim the Tassaiga, especially from Meliodas since this Caelestis is a mortal enemy of his.

He follows the scent trail through a ventilation duck and exits into a large chamber. 

"How much longer are you going to keep this up llama? I would've abandoned this chase a long time ago if I didn't respect those guys. Just give me the amulet already!"

Inyuasha looks at the outfit underneath his cloak. It's a black and white stripped prison uniform. "I'm going to make you pay for putting me in these awful clothes, and for what you did to my face and hair!"

The half-demon's face looks like a bloody boar's face. The makeup is now really messed up after sweating off a bit and looks far worse than it originally did. Inuyasha's hair has been sprayed dyed with several different colors and tied into dreadlocks. 

Inuyasha hears a strange noise. It sounds like a woman in agony. Inuyasha opens a curtain and sees a sight he wishes he wasn't seeing. There's Eyelash with not one, but two teenage looking girls, who appear to be humanoids of a different species. Both Inuyasha and the two girls scream bloody murder as the girls quickly wrapped themselves in blankets, grab their clothes, and skedaddle out of there. The llama in red silk pajamas didn't have a chance to react before Inuyasha grabs him by the neck and threatens to strangle him. Eyelash giggles sheepishly, scolds himself for getting distracted, and hands over the amulet.

Gowther, Bluey, and Hawk arrive in the chambers. Gowther has Bluey in his arms, who's regained consciousness but is very slowly regaining her motor skills after the sedative she was injected with not only knocked her unconscious but completely shut down her motor skills as well.

Hawk freaks at the half-demon's appearance, almost not recognizing him until he remembered what Eyelash had done to him, Meliodas, Cringer, and Karoo earlier. Bluey actually laughs until the half-demon demon gives her an angry stare. She then scolds the llama for being to his old tricks again, although it's obvious that she's amused by it.

"How did you guys manage to find me?" ask Inuyasha. 

"I followed your mind;" answers Gowther. "I'm sorry to say I've lost track of the captain, Sir Wildelfredico, and Lady Nuri. There seems to barriers all over the place that have appeared out of nowhere."

"It seems to be that barrier that was invited by Hephaestus that Dr Pendergrass was playing around with, maa;" informs Bluey. "Don't touch it or it'll transport you to another part of the fortress. It won't transport us outside from within these walls."

"Never mind about that!" says Inuyasha; "Did you find a cure for the demon queen?"

"We did;" answers Bluey; "The problem is somebody sabotaged it and destroyed the key ingredients needed from Krakatoa. Iris wants to go there and get them, but she needs Nuria Shila."

Bluey starts moving her front left foot. Hawk is excited for her.

"Bluey look, you're moving your foot!"

Bluey realizes it and she's very enthusiastic about her progress. Her cheeks blush and her foot taps as if it's trying to dance. "Oh stop, flattery will get you nowhere with me. Maa."

"Oh please!" says Inuyasha annoyed; "The queen and others are dying and your happy about moving your foot."

"Oh, by the way," Hawk scratches himself and Myoga falls from him; "Take this thing back, will you?"

"I'm not a thing you pig. How did you even know I was in there? I didn't suck anything."

"You were going too."

"No, I wasn't. Master Inuyasha, please wash yourself."

"And just how am I supposed to do that Myoga?!"

Iris shows up with Melidy striped to her, holding a large, wet towel and bucket of water. Melidy screams when she sees Inuyasha's face.

"Oh, thank you, I guess."

Eyelash did the same thing to me and Meliodas;" says Hawk. Eyelash snickers but doesn't reveal that he has pictures of them. Hawk goes up to the llama and kicks him hard in the gut. Eyelash, a hypochondriac, freaks out and feels so much more pain than what's actually there. Plays out a huge drama scene about pain, then actually causes himself to pass-out from his imaginary injury. 

In the meantime, Iris senses something and goes towards the wall. The others start to wonder what she's doing when they hear mumbling coming from behind the wall. Instead of punching the wall like most people would, she finds the way to open it like a door. On the other side is a heavily bond Vald.

"VALD?" says a surprised Bluey; "What in bloody blazes are you doing here? You were exiled months ago, maa."

Iris undoes his bond but a strange feeling about him, keeping the devil cuffs handy. Once Vald's mouth is free, he takes a good look at the unmasked girl and freaks out.

"It's you, the daughter of Barbatos." Vald shows a fearful respect in his eyes. Iris cringes as she doesn't acknowledge Barbatos as her true father. She then remembers that she's unmasked and tries to bury her face.

"Daughter of Barbatos please help me. My dear Artemis is in danger. Caelestis has trapped her inside a black jewel and took it with her. You're one of the only ones who could free her. Please help."

Iris has to quickly process what she just heard. She wants to help Artemis, but Vald has a shady reputation and she's skeptical about trusting him.

Inuyasha snaps and tries to attack Vald. Iris grabs him and holds him back, making sure that Melidy dosen't get smothered in the process. "LET GO OF ME! Caelestis took my weapons! Where are they?"

Gowther is then heard gasping as he looks inside Vald mind, who has his guard down. "It was him! He's the reason Caelestis is still alive. They are lovers, even though he loves Artemis more."

This shocks everybody. Vald immediately puts his guard up so Gowther can't read his mind, but the damage is done.

"What the hell!?" exclaims Inuyasha; "All this is happening because of YOU!"

"Maa...what?!" goes Bluey; "The rumors about you were true? I thought it was all bogus."

Vald actually gets on his knees and begs. "Please, just save Madame Artemis. I'll never live with myself if anything happens to her. I thought Caelestis only wanted her out of the way for her own good. Now I don't know what she'll do to her. Please, out of the kindness of your Christian heart, please Daughter of Barbatos."

Iris has had enough and finally speaks in a full sentence. "Get up Vald. I'll help Artemis, but don't ever call the daughter of Barbatos again."

Everybody's surprised to hear her talk, and in her true almost clear voice, which is soft with a lovely melody undertone just like Elizabeth, but she also spoke with an authorize firmness just now. She them swiftly slaps the devil cuffs back on Vald.

"What are you doing?! I'm on your side."

"Yea right;" Hawk and Inuyasha say in unison, them looking at each other.

"Sorry Vald, maaa," replies Bluey; "I understand why she's doing that. You don't exactly have a history of being trustworthy."

"Tell us everything that's going on;" says Gowther. "Also, Lady Iris wants you to take her to Krakatoa to get the ingredients to cure the Covik Demon Soul Eater Virus."

Vald really doesn't care about the disease nor who's been affected by it as long as it's not Artemis or her daughters, however, he fears Iris and feels that he must comply in exchange for rescuing his one-sided beloved.