The Lost and The Fallen -Melizabeth-

Chapter 3: In which a Goddess has a Plan

~Elizabeth~

I stood watching as The Prince of Demons turned and smoothly glided away.

There was a strange grace to him, an odd, otherworldly strength that could never belong to a creature of this world.

But he felt human. He felt mortal. He felt alive.

I stared down at my traitorous right hand in morbid curiosity, the events of this night flashing through my mind once more.

I had just... reached out. Held a demon's hand. Ruffled his hair. Yanked him around the village like he was a mere human.

And it had felt so natural.

Since I was a young child just learning how to cast an ark, I had been told that demons were brutish savages that were far below us. I had been told of their leaders, Meliodas of Love and Zeldris, monstrous creatures who should be slain at the first opportunity presented. That was how I had recognized Meliodas today.

Delicate features befitting a fairy. Overwhelming power. And the dreaded mark of the demons, displayed proudly for all to see.

When he was a mere name on a page, it was easy to imagine ending him... of making my mother proud of me. But when faced with the living creature, when faced with flesh and blood and a sort of dark sarcasm I thought equated humor in his mind... I couldn't.

Because a question plagued me still.

From the moment I had identified Meliodas's dark aura, I had rushed to evacuate a large part of the village -Meliodas wouldn't have noticed the lack of activity, as humans were prone to sleep at night- and had signaled to the archangels before landing to try to stall the demon for as long as I could.

I knew I had no chance against him, drained of magic as I was. The part of me that was Elizabeth -the one who liked flowers and dancing and had cried at the sight of blood- wanted to run, to hide and wait for the archangels to come help. But the part that was Bloodstained Ellie, the part that had been honed to a sharp edge by horrors no one deserved to know... that part was utterly unafraid as she approached one of the most powerful creatures in this realm.

But neither Elizabeth nor Bloodstained Ellie had expected an innocent-looking boy, content to play along with her foolish game.

That was the question that plagued me.

If demons desire blood and pain and suffering above all else, how was I whole and uninjured? Yes, he had tried to... actually, not really. 'Choking' implies that he was trying to kill me, but looking back, it felt more half-hearted than anything else. As horrible as it may sound, I knew from past experiences that I had more than enough strength to snap a demon's neck. If Meliodas was physically stronger than me... well, it should have been easy for him to end me in that tiny window of time when he'd had me pinned.

But I had no more time to dwell on the debatable morals of a demon.

"Ellie! Are you alright?" Mael's voice was panicked, and I looked over in that direction to see him landing gracefully on the ceramic shingles of one of the village houses.

"Yeah, I'm okay!"

Mael's face darkened. "Ellie, did you kill the demon? I don't sense any demonic aura here now-" he gasped in surprise, and I winced as Mael came to the same realization I had come to hours earlier. "Meliodas? You faced the demon prince of Love? Why isn't there a crater here?"

"I don't... I don't know."

At least I thought I didn't. There were a thousand possible reasons, but none seemed to be quite right. And the ones that did were treasonous.