The Momma’s Boy, The Shapeshifter, And The Former Demon! Four Knights Of The Apocalypse Chapter 68 BREAKDOWN

……………………… I don’t know what’s going on with Kodansha’s “Shonen Magazine’s” official releases, but we seem to be going back to the fan translations for this and Edens Zero. Don’t know WHY, but I’ve got a job to do. And BY GUM IT- I’M DOIN’ IT!! Because this battle just took an interesting turn. Also; I learned a new word! “Nephilim:” a group of mysterious beings or people in the Hebrew Bible of unusually large size and strength who lived both before and after the Flood. Or– as Melascula describes in this chapter- an “Impure Child.” Wonder who she’s talking about. We’ll get to that. For now; Four Knights Of The Apocalypse Chapter 68: “Nephilim.” Let’s see what we can do………….

REVIEW

LAST CHAPTER: Gawain and Percival stood their ground against Chaos Galland- only for Percival’s sneak attack to blow up in Gawain’s face. So while she tries to violently murder Percival; Lance looks on as Prince Tristan does battle with Chaos Melascula! She begins to chip away at the enchantment on his sword, and summons a monster of her own making- one made of from the “souls of other races.” In particular; the souls of a Goddess and a Demon. One of which you may know…………

Tristan tries using his Holy Magic to destroy it, but being primarily Demon and Goddess means that this creature is immune to Tristan all together!! She begins to chide Tristan for lacking his father’s “Demonic Presence” and his mother’s overwhelming power- even using the old nickname “Bloodstained Ellie.” And Tristan takes this as a compliment. What’s more; he even starts to act like a Fanboy for his mother- to the disgust of Melascula. To the point where she loses her grip and let’s go of the creature.

As she is about to continue to fight; a Random Fairy interjects, asking where the “other one” that was with her went. But she’s uninterested in answering his questions. So uninterested that she starts to think to herself: “They didn’t mess up, did they? That Star Visor– they said they were heading near the castle. Anyway- what an idiotic looking Fairy.” She kills it- but it turns out to be Lance in disguise; the dopey look made her let her guard down so she unintentionally leaked the information Lance wanted.

But the more that Lance refers to her as a Demon; the more and more she starts to feel an intense, throbbing pain. They realize that she and Galland had a Brainwashing spell casted on them when they were revived; anything related to their past that doesn’t pertain to their hatred for the Sins was locked off. Trying to make them remember causes mental fractures like this. And for Sorceress types like Melascula; a “lack of focus” means her magic f*cks up. And thus her current forms becomes unstable- reverting her to her true self.

Her large size catches the eye of everyone in Liones- much to her dismay. She threatens to devour everyone who looks upon her true form. Then Trsitan taps into his Demon power and cuts her up. “Like Father, Like Son-” something the prince didn’t want to hear…………….

It seems as though the Knights of The Apocalypse had succeeded in defeating the invaders…….. until Melascula pulls out a Chaos Staff for one last trick. Thus; Four Knights of the Apocalypse chapter 68 comes to a Peturbing END!! That part gets harder every time, I swear……………

Analysis

I think part of this arc’s purpose is to establish how these 4 fight- both in terms of individual combat and how they work in groups……… kind of. We at least get a feel for the character interactions we’ll be having going forward:

• Tristan is the “Voice” of the group- the first to speak up in and explain the situation if they cause trouble. He’s manages to reign in most of Gawain’s………. “extreme” tendencies. He’s accepting of Percival because of his innocence and lack of understanding of the world. And Lance seems to be like Meliodas in the fact that they like to tease the Prince.
• Percival thinks of everyone as his friends, but is a little intimidated by Gawain. Though mostly for laughs; he’s clearly not afraid to call him out on his sh!t. Although he seems to be getting it. He’s closer to Lance than to the others, and is already used to his tendencies.
• Lance is the “loner” of the group- distant and tends to go off on his own. But he’ll smile with the rest of them, and will most likely open up to them as time goes on. He’s known Tristan the longest, so he has a lot of “ammunition” to tease him with, and he probably avoids Gawain if he can help it.
• Gawain cares for no one, but is seemingly fond of Tristan. That’ll change soon.

Due to their history; Lance and Tristan might fight together often, and if not- Tristan with Gawain, and Lance and Percival. Gawain and Percival need some time before they’re have that kind of “synchronism.” But this series greatest strength has always been its character writing; they’ll grow to get along, and that will carry on throughout the story in important ways.

But moving on from them: Chaos Melascula and Chaos Galland. So glad Suzuki sensei chose to bring them back. I always liked how the 10 Commandments kind of “paired up-” Zeldris and Estarossa; Derieri and Monspeet; Drole and Gloxinia; and Galland and Melascula. Grayroad wasn’t a character, and Fraudrin was cool all on his own. And out of those duos; I suppose Melascula and Galland were the weakest in terms of characterization. Not even suppose- they just were. But that being said; they were also the ideal Commandments to bring back because you can get more traction out of them.

This part gets into SPOILERS for the end of the “Seven Deadly Sins” original series, so click away if you don’t want to know. Long story short: Zeldris is ruling the Demon Realm; Estarossa/Mael is protecting the Goddess realm(although something may have happened because Gawain seems to possess his Grace); Grayroad may still be a test subject for Merlin; and the rest are dead- except for Melascula and Galland, obviously.

And like I said; they were the weakest in terms of characterization, meaning that he has a second chance to make them really good characters! Like; something is clearly being teased with their revival and the Mind Control spell- something that can either turn the tides in favor of Liones, or create an entirely separate problem altogether……………

Part of the reason I feel that these 2 were the best choices to bring back is because they seem to be the easiest to control. They’re…………….. “Narrow Minded” in their goals- driven solely by their vendetta against the 7 Deadly Sins and the programming Arthur gave them. Whereas the other Commandments ended up becoming good people at their death, or didn’t die at all– these 2 never got that development. Had it been Derieri and Monspeet, then Arthur would have dug his own grave. But these 2 are “Basic.” Though that doesn’t mean that that they’ll be on their “leashes” forever………………….

As shown over the last 2 chapters; the spell isn’t very strong- as Lance put it: “Crude.” They retain enough of their memories to know how they were defeated, which comes attached to the knowledge that they were once members of the Demon King’s 10 Commandments. But that runs in contrast with Camelot’s goal of a “Human Dominated Britannia.” So every time they remember that segment of their past; the spell comes in trying to block it off. It’s “crude-” it’s unrefine; it won’t work forever. I imagine that the moment they try to break the spell they’ll get their memories back. They’re going to get free from Arthur is my point.

Although; that begs the question what Arthur’s contingency plan is- because he certainly has one. He wouldn’t bring back 2 powerful Demon’s like them unless he had one. It might be that the spell being broken will strip them of their chaos power, or they could go back to how they were before(a Garden Snake and a Statue Head). They’ll certainly lose something, but I don’t know what’ll happen after that. I just know that their survival means that Camelot has another enemy to deal with. I can’t imagine them ever calling Liones “allies.”

Conclusion

I know it’s a bit abrupt, but I feel that we should stop here. That Chaos Staff bit could in a TON of directions, but I don’t want to be here all day. Heck; I don’t even know if we’ll begin next chapter on that cliffhanger. And then there’s Tristan’s problem with being like his Dad, and…….. just a lot to talk about. This IS a set up arc, after all; every chapter’s gonna be packed with content for the story to talk about later on. And we’ll get to all of that when it happens. For now; that’s all, folks! Until the next post; Have A Wonderful Day. By~~~e!!