At Elizabeth's insistence, she went with everyone to Baste Prison.
In fact, you could see the outline of Baste Prison from town; the closer they got, the clearer it became.
Charles couldn't understand what the builders of Baste Prison were thinking, why they would construct a wartime fortress like this.
The prison looked like a cluster of enormous mushrooms and didn't resemble anything with military utility at all.
Before they even reached Baste Prison's perimeter, everyone noticed the dark clouds gathering on the horizon.
Listening to the buzzing, it was no cloud at all but a swarm made up of countless insects.
And the source of the swarm was the oddly shaped Baste Prison.
"Uwah!"
The cry came from Diane. Hugging her shoulders, she took a step back and said, "I hate bugs the most!"
Stella rubbed her upper arm; seeing so many insects made her break out in goosebumps too.
But when something made Stella uncomfortable, she wouldn't avoid it—she would erase it.
"Dragon King's Flame that Burns Heaven and Earth!"
Though those insects each carried a faint trace of magic, they were fundamentally fragile. There was no way they could withstand Stella's incandescent dragonflame.
The stench of scorched protein made everyone frown, but it was far easier than facing those poisonous bugs.
"Damn you, how dare you burn up my little cuties!"
A woman's voice rang out. A Holy Knight in insectile armor approached from afar, wielding a double-headed whip and lashing at Stella.
Stella raised the Feilong Sinblade horizontally and blocked the incoming lash.
The Holy Knight, Friesia, wrapped the whip around Stella's weapon and tried to yank her in, but it felt like the whip had snared a huge boulder—she couldn't budge it at all.
Of course not. Even with Charles not activating any burst magic, Stella's raw physical strength was beyond comparison.
Don't ask how Charles knew—when Stella pinned him down, he'd used all his strength and still couldn't break free.
Stella had genuine draconic brute strength. A second-rate Holy Knight thinking she could reel her in was wishful thinking.
As sweat trickled beneath Friesia's helmet, the ground at her feet suddenly shook.
"So you're the one who let the bugs loose?"
Diane stomped forward, shattering the ground as she came up to Friesia and brought her fist down.
With a boom, the ground caved in to form a large pit, cracks spidering out for over ten meters. Friesia, armor shattered, lay at the center in the pit, all four limbs bent at grotesque angles. It would be months before she could even stand.
Even after defeating this female Holy Knight, no one relaxed.
Meliodas gripped the short staff and said, "You hiding over there—come out!"
From the look of it, if the enemy kept hiding, he wouldn't show mercy.
No sooner had he spoken than two people stepped out from behind a thicket.
They were a middle-aged man and a pointy-hatted boy—seemingly father and son travelers, the harmless sort.
But Charles quickly noticed the boy's peculiar staff. The wooden shaft was topped with a ring, and a metal bell hung in the center.
As the boy walked, the bell gave off a crisp jingle. Charles keenly sensed the magic carried in that sound.
"Please don't hurt us, we're just passing travelers!"
"We ran into the poisonous bugs just now and nearly died. It's thanks to you that we were saved."
The middle-aged man raised both hands to show he wasn't dangerous. The boy, tears streaming down his face, ran toward the group; with each step, the bell rang more urgently.
Charles sighed. Such clumsy acting, and they brought it out anyway—couldn't these villains be a little more professional?
Never mind the magic leaking from that staff—what kid that big would abandon his father in danger and run toward a group of strangers that included a giant?
Charles couldn't watch anymore. He took one step, appeared in front of the boy, grabbed his head, and slammed him into the ground.
The stunned expression on the boy's face hadn't even faded when that face warped along with his body.
He simply couldn't understand how he'd been exposed. His magic was hypnosis, with the staff's bell as the medium.
As long as someone heard the bell, he could make them see and hear whatever he wanted them to. But this unknown man had seen through his disguise.
Holy Knight Jude, captain of the Weird Fangs, had defeated countless enemies with hypnotic magic in the past.
Now he was pinned firmly to the ground and couldn't break free at all.
Charles looked down at Jude's Iron Maiden–like armor and had no interest in explaining where he'd slipped up. He simply increased the pressure on the faceplate.
Jude swung his staff and smashed it against Charles's shoulder. The wooden staff splintered, and the bell clattered to the ground.
Charles didn't so much as flinch. Beyond hypnosis, this Holy Knight had little else to offer.
The woman-faced visor began to deform and crack, blood seeping from the fissures. Soon Jude's hand fell limp, and he lost consciousness then and there.
When Charles moved, Elizabeth had wanted to speak, but Meliodas stopped her. Only after seeing Jude's true face did she understand what had happened, and she felt a pang of guilt for having misunderstood Charles.
Charles ignored Elizabeth's complicated feelings and said, "The Weird Fangs have four Holy Knights. We've already taken down three. The last one should be much easier."
Meliodas slid the short staff back into his belt. "For you, even all four would be easy."
Charles smiled without confirming or denying it.
After clearing the two Holy Knights blocking the way, the group set out again and soon reached the outside of Baste Prison.
The middle-aged man who had followed Jude was also a soldier of Baste Prison, forced to guide the group to the entrance.
Charles flared his nostrils and said, "Weird. There's no one here. But I do smell two people."
He confirmed two scents. One brimmed with vitality—Charles could tell it was Ban of the Seven Deadly Sins, the Sin of Greed, who had drunk from the Fountain of Youth and gained an undying body.
Strangely, the supposed prisoner was wandering around. It seemed that once he heard Meliodas had arrived, he'd simply broken out of prison on his own.
The other scent belonged to a woman—faint and weak. It should be Doctor Dana's daughter.
With no time to play hide-and-seek with Ban, the group first rescued the imprisoned girl.
Luckily, other than fainting from being scared by Diane, the girl hadn't been harmed.
By coincidence, when they turned around, they ran into a man with a bare torso.
(End of Chapter)
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