"In the distant past, on this land called Britannia, there existed five fundamentally different races. Legend says that three thousand years ago, the Goddess Clan led the Fairy Clan, the Giant Clan, and humans to subjugate the Demon Clan, which possessed ominous destructive power. Combining the strength of the four races, they sealed the Demon Clan, and peace returned to the land. This war came to be known by later generations as the Holy War. The Holy War ended three thousand years ago, and now is an era where humans and other races coexist. The Holy Knights who protect the kingdom possess extraordinary magic and are therefore held in awe. However, traitors have appeared among the Holy Knights, setting themselves against all the others. People call them the Seven Deadly Sins!"
"I get all that, but Charles, why are you talking in that weird narrator voice?" Stella cut in.
Charles cleared his throat. "Don't worry about irrelevant details. I'm introducing this world to you!"
Stella snickered at her occasionally childish boyfriend and said, "Alright, alright, I'm listening."
Charles's expression turned serious. "Do not underestimate this world. For us, there are quite a few dangerous beings here. The Fairy Clan, the Giant Clan, and humans are manageable—aside from a few exceptional individuals, the rest aren't much of a threat. It's the Demon Clan and the Goddess Clan—those two races with divine titles. The power they wield can't be taken lightly."
Charles hadn't expected he would come to this world—the one where seven sinners bearing the names of the deadly sins are the protagonists.
He couldn't help feeling relieved that before coming here he had ground out some experience and skills from Ignia; otherwise, he really wouldn't have had the confidence to linger in this world.
For the newly strengthened Charles, only a handful of people here could pose a threat.
First were the leaders of the Demon Clan and the Goddess Clan—the first two lives of this world, born from Chaos: the Demon King and the Supreme Deity. In this world, they can be considered the highest gods. However, their true bodies are in the Heavens and in Purgatory, and they cannot descend to Britannia across the world's barrier. Only a portion of their power can descend, which isn't enough to make Charles wary.
As for the four Archangels of the Goddess Clan and the Ten Commandments of the Demon Clan, the only things worth an extra look are the blessings and commandments that originate from the Supreme Deity and the Demon King.
Moreover, upon arriving in this world, Charles learned that the king of the Kingdom of Liones was gravely ill and that all state affairs were being handled by the Holy Knights. That puts the timing right at the beginning of the story. The Goddess Clan is still entirely in the Heavens, while the Demon Clan is sealed within the Coffin of Eternal Darkness.
Which means, for Charles, the only ones worth a look right now are two and a half members of the Seven Deadly Sins.
One of them is, of course, Escanor, the Sin of Pride. At noon for that one minute, Escanor fully deserves the title "peerless under heaven." In his life-burning state, he can even flatten the fully revived Demon King.
To be honest, even though Charles is immune to fire-element magic, if he actually ran into a life-burning Escanor, the outcome would be unpredictable.
Still, Charles thought it over and figured he wouldn't do anything to make Escanor go all out against him, so that worst-case scenario isn't likely to occur.
The other person Charles was wary of was Merlin, who possesses the magic \[Infinity]. Although in terms of raw power Merlin might not rank in the very top tier, what's most frightening is the thousand years of accumulated knowledge and wisdom—and combined with her cheat-like magic, Charles really worries about being outmaneuvered by her in some way. After all, it's Merlin who pulls strings behind the scenes throughout the story. Even the Demon King is her target, and in the end she does succeed.
As for the "half," that would be this world's protagonist, the captain of the Seven Deadly Sins, Meliodas. The reason he counts as half is because right now he only has a remnant of his original power left. As the former leader of the Ten Commandments and the Demon King's eldest son, Meliodas naturally possessed overwhelming strength. Unfortunately, after three thousand years of wandering, his power has decreased rather than increased, and later most of it was sealed by Merlin, leaving him only a bit stronger than a human Holy Knight at present. If not for the fact that he can still unleash Demon Clan power, he wouldn't even count as half.
But for Charles, whether this world is dangerous is secondary; what matters most is what he can gain from it. The magic here is special—effectively equivalent to magic in other worlds, but in the Seven Deadly Sins world it's more mysterious because it's akin to a rule-like existence. For example, Merlin's \[Infinity]—once she casts a spell, it can persist forever, even freezing time indefinitely. That practically challenges everything Charles has understood so far about the principles of magic and mana. Even magic should have to follow some logic, right? Charles also wants to try to see if he can obtain a personal "magic" in this world. It seems the captain's Full Counter was learned through study.
Of course, that's only a secondary objective. What Charles really wants to research are the Demon King and the Supreme Deity—the two beings who stand at the apex of light and darkness. The reason? The curses borne by Meliodas and the heroine Elizabeth: Eternal Life and Perpetual Reincarnation. Meliodas can never truly die; even if he dies, he will revive, yet his body will never grow. At the same time, with each revival, he loses a portion of his emotions until he returns to the cold, merciless state of three thousand years ago. Elizabeth, on the other hand, continually reincarnates over three thousand years. Each time she loses her memories, but once she falls in love with Meliodas, she regains them and then meets certain death three days later, only to reincarnate again.
Curses, even in Charles's view, are extremely mysterious. He suspects that such fate-like curses are essentially embedding a certain "fact" into the world's rules. The reason Charles wants to study this is because a similar curse exists in the world of Fairy Tail. The God Ankhseram, whose true form no one has seen—proof of His existence lies only in the "Contradictory Curse" upon Jellal and Mavis. Charles strongly suspects that if he succeeds in resurrecting Igneel, he might also draw down Ankhseram's curse. So, as a precaution, he must study how to break curses. At least compared to Ankhseram—possibly the will of the world—the Demon King and the Supreme Deity still have ways to be contacted; from them there's a path to understanding curses.
Of course, Meliodas and Elizabeth, who bear the curses, are also observable samples.
But at this point in time, Charles still has no way to reach the Demon King or the Supreme Deity.
There is, however, something he can approach right now—something whose level is even above the Demon King and the Supreme Deity. Chaos, the existence that birthed everything in this world, including the Demon King and the Supreme Deity. It is this world's Creator God, possessing the power to create all things. The key point is that it was sealed by the Demon King and the Supreme Deity working together, and has become a mindless mass of energy. The one called the Mother of Chaos should currently be right here on this land. As long as he researches it cautiously, its danger level isn't that high.
So when Stella asked about the next plan, Charles answered without hesitation: "Next, we're going to find a tavern called the Boar Hat."
(End of Chapter)
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