After the battle began, Charles took on four opponents by himself—Zeldris, Monspeet, Derieri, and Drole.
Meliodas, meanwhile, was fighting Estarossa and Gloxinia together.
Even though Meliodas had reclaimed his power, the matchup with Estarossa was terribly unfavorable for him.
Estarossa couldn't use the Demon Clan's darkness, so he wasn't suited to magic attacks. That made Meliodas's Full Counter useless.
And Estarossa's ability was "Full Counter" as well—only unlike Meliodas, Estarossa's Full Counter could return physical attacks with doubled power.
That meant Estarossa hard-countered Meliodas's best moves.
Worse, Meliodas's power level lagged far behind Estarossa's, which was why he was being suppressed from the start.
Gloxinia had barely moved, and by the end was free enough to help heal Drole and the others.
Wiping the blood at the corner of his mouth, Meliodas said, "Sorry. My 'little brother' is a real pain."
Despite the word "brother," Meliodas's tone was ice-cold.
The whole "second son of the Demon King" identity was a lie; even the name Estarossa was the name of the dog Elizabeth had kept.
Estarossa's true identity was Mael, one of the Goddess Clan's Four Archangels, blessed with the Supreme Deity's strongest grace, "Sunshine."
Three thousand years ago, Gowther of Selflessness, one of the Ten Commandments, sacrificed his life and all his magic to cast a forbidden spell in order to end the Holy War.
He altered everyone's memories of Mael, forcibly creating an "Estarossa" who had slain the mightiest Archangel.
Then, with humanity's betrayal shattering Stigma, and the Fairy King and Giant King joining the Ten Commandments, the balance between the two sides collapsed. The Goddess Clan had to enact their final plan.
They gave up their bodies to activate the Coffin of Eternal Darkness, sealing the Demon Clan and ending the war.
It seemed, however, that while Gowther had rewritten memories, he hadn't managed to rewrite feelings.
Charles exhaled. "No helping it—let's reshuffle our opponents."
After Gloxinia finished patching everyone up, he sent his Spirit Spear's first form to attack the pair.
Halfway there, it was blocked by another Spirit Spear. The latter was knocked away, but Gloxinia's spear stopped as well.
King dropped from the sky and stood in Gloxinia's way. On the other side, Diane gripped her war hammer with both hands and caught Drole's punch on the haft.
Derieri took a step forward—then suddenly froze as her unshrouded arm vanished into thin air. Blood gushed from the severed stump.
"You can't afford to be careless in this kind of fight," Ban said, tossing aside the arm he had ripped off, his tone dripping with mockery.
If anyone had grown the most in this time—second only to Arthur—it wasn't Diane, who had mastered the earth's power, nor King, whose magic had multiplied. It was Ban.
While traveling with Ban before, Charles had helped him lock in a direction for growth.
Ban's magic, "Snatch," was in essence an extraordinarily powerful ability—the manipulation of life energy.
Stealing an enemy's basic attributes without permission was merely the most superficial application of that power.
Even his later trick of perfectly suppressing his own presence was less a skill he "trained" than a branching application of the same ability.
And the "Bestowal" he learned after returning from Purgatory was, at its core, just another form of using that power.
The Fountain of Youth–granted immortality had indeed made Ban famous—but it also limited his growth.
So Charles taught him to face and develop his own power. After Elaine's resurrection, Ban threw himself into brutal training to protect the woman he loved in the battles to come.
His power level hadn't changed much, but his actual combat power had transformed.
Now, Ban could not only double the effects of his earlier tricks—his control had become far, far more refined.
For example, he could freely snatch any single attribute from any target and bestow that stolen attribute on someone else.
Just now, he suppressed his presence and, while Derieri was off guard, snatched two of her hearts in an instant.
"Derieri!"
Monspeet cried out in alarm and moved to assist on reflex—only for a fire dragon to streak up and bar his way.
Wings spread behind her, Stella leveled her sword. "Your opponent is me."
Charles grinned. "Looks like the numbers line up. Time for duels."
He blurred forward straight at Estarossa, who launched at the same moment. Meliodas swung his blade at Zeldris.
A short, curved blade appeared in Estarossa's hand and caught Charles's fist.
As a former Goddess, Estarossa naturally couldn't use darkness; his body housed a Commandment that contained a portion of the Demon King's power.
Borrowing that power, he could use various abilities. That short blade was the Rebellion Sword, created from it.
Even though Rebellion Swords were single-use consumables, their toughness rivaled the finest arms. Even so, after taking one punch from Charles, the blade crumbled to shards.
Estarossa fell back; his formerly languid gaze sharpened at once.
"I've never seen a human like you before. And I'm very curious—why can you still fight under my Commandment?"
Estarossa's Commandment was Charity—one of the strongest in Charles's view.
Charity's rule is that those who harbor hatred lose the power to harm others. Its strength lies in how broadly it triggers. How many who step onto a battlefield can claim they feel no hatred at all?
After all, few people are like Escanor, who would "not hate those weaker than himself."
Unfortunately for him, Charles's qualities as a warrior meant he rarely fought with "hatred" in his heart.
Most importantly, Charles—who knew everything—felt no hatred for Estarossa as they fought; if anything, he pitied him.
As a Goddess, he'd been born weak, scorned and shunned by his own. He'd trained hard to grow strong, fought bravely, and won honor and power.
But the one woman who'd cared for him when he was small and weak, the one he'd always seen as his light, fell in love with someone else.
And that wasn't the end: because of Gowther's forbidden magic, he forgot who he truly was, became the very Demon he despised most, and in turn hurt his own people.
Even his name turned into a dog's name. Thinking about it, Charles couldn't blame him for going insane later.
Then again, Estarossa had killed Gowther of Selflessness's beloved; in that light, Gowther's "murdering the heart" was a sort of revenge.
Perhaps sensing the oddity in Charles's eyes, Estarossa felt a sudden flare of anger for no reason.
"What's with that look? It's annoying."
Darkness gathered at his side into several Rebellion Swords. Wreathed by the oddly shaped blades, he rushed Charles.
Charles said nothing and surged forward in a blaze.
A glint flashed in Estarossa's eyes; he picked his timing and moved to unleash Full Counter.
In the next instant, Charles's fist sank into his gut. With a boom, the ground behind Estarossa gouged into a fan-shaped crater under the impact.
Full Counter is a very practical ability; its minuscule cost is balanced by a high success condition.
Don't be fooled by how often Meliodas and Estarossa dominate with it—Full Counter demands the user precisely strike the opponent's incoming attack to return it doubled.
That takes insane reflexes and timing. Estarossa clearly failed to catch Charles's punch—so he ate the whole thing.
"Don't hold it against me. It'd be a real buzzkill if you self-destructed on your own Commandment."
The punch wasn't the worst of it; that line nearly made Estarossa lose it.
"Human, I'm going to kill you!"
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