The legacy of Seven Deadly Sins gets carried forward by its sequel series, The Four Knights of the Apocalypse, which has just released the second part of its first season, consisting of 13 episodes, streaming on Netflix. The first part focused on one of the Knights of the Apocalypse, our protagonist Percival, and his band of newfound friends—Donny, talking fox Sin, Anghalhad, aka Anne, and Nasiens—as they journeyed to the kingdom of Liones to seek out their destiny. An ominous prophecy forewarning the doom of the world and the end of King Arthur Pendragon at the hands of four Knights of the Apocalypse had led Arthur to send his Holy Knights of Chaos to find and kill the likely candidates. The second part picks up pace by establishing the connection with the original series and bringing the four Knights of Prophecy together, setting the stage for an upcoming conflict.
Spoilers Ahead
Holy Knight Ardberg’s Tragic Fate and the Epic Return of Goat’s Sin of Lust
After taking care of the dragon mayhem in the town of Cant, the fellowship of teenage adventurers consisting of Percival, Anghalhad, Donny, Nasiens, and Sin is moving towards Liones, which turns out to be quite a time-consuming journey. En route, they come across a village, and seeing welcoming faces, Percy and Donny are the first to rush inside by unknowingly crossing a magical barrier. Sceptical of the place, Anne and Nasiens remain outside, and a hunter named Ardd informs them that the village is in fact a monster village, and a strange old man referred to as Elder is their chief. Ardd offers his help to rescue Donny and Percy, as it is hinted that he and his family suffered in the past due to the monsters, and he wishes to help others to let them avert the same fate. As Anne and Nasien manage to break the magical barrier of the village by following Ardd’s advice, the true face of the villagers is revealed—they are the members of the demon clan with whom humanity and the goddess clan had been engaged in bloody holy wars in the past. However, Percy has formed an amicable relationship with the demons, and it is also revealed that they didn’t take part in any form of violence in the past. Despite that, Ardd considers them irredeemable and reveals his true form as Ardberg, the Holy Knight of Camelot, a servant of King Arthur.
Ardberg uses Goddess Amber to trap all the demons inside and notices the fragment of the coffin of eternal darkness with Percy, which confirms his identity as the Knight of Apocalypse whom Ironside had previously encountered. Ardberg unleashes his steed, Cernunnos, a fearsome beast from purgatory which was granted to the knight by King Arthur. With Sin’s advice and Nasiens’ support, Percy manages to control the beast, but Ardberg manages to flee with the Amber to a nearby cave named Crystal Grotto. Percy and co. chase behind him, only to get turned into infants after entering the cave due to Ardberg’s superior magical abilities. However, finally, the demon village elder arrives and reveals himself to be one of the legendary sins, Gowther, the goat’s sin of lust, who was protecting the demon villagers from prejudiced minds by hiding their identities. Ardberg continues to refuse to spare Percy’s life or to give away the Amber containing the demons, and his tragic past reveals that unlike other prejudiced Holy Knights, Ardberg has his own personal reason to hate the demons. During the last Holy War, Ardberg had lost his baby daughter, Connie, when Arthur came to him and gave him a chance to avenge her death by being his knight. Gowther offers Ardberg a chance to reunite with his daughter by creating an illusion of Connie from his fond memories of her, and an emotionally overwhelmed Ardberg decides to return the Amber and spare the lives of the teenagers as well.
Dark Talismans and Sin’s True Identity
Meanwhile, Arthur unleashes his assassin knight group, known as the Dark Talismans, who track down Percy and co. and unleash a vicious attack on them. While saving Anne’s life, whom Ardberg likened to his late daughter Connie, Ardberg sacrifices his life. Gowther retaliates with his empowered magic, which decimates one of the Dark Talisman members, and the group retreats for the time being. As Percy and his friends finally take their leave from the village, Anne is heartbroken after learning about Ardberg’s past and final fate from Gowther.
The group arrives at the Entangled Forest, where they plan to get rid of their pursuers by hiding inside the maze-like tree structures spread throughout the forest. However, the Dark Talisman’s members—Elgin, Burgie, and Doronach—catch up to them. Sin helps the group thwart the efforts of the assassins to capture Percy by providing valuable advice, and it soon becomes clear that he is no ordinary talking fox. The leader of the assassins, Fiddich, arrives, and realizing Sin’s importance, he corners him with the help of his teammates. Percy and co. are unable to break through the trap, and it almost feels like Sin is destined for a tragic fate when he transforms into a teenager and effectively eliminates all the adversaries with ease by showing his superior skills. This shocks Percy and co. out of their wits, and Sin reveals his true identity to be Lancelot, an emissary of the King of Liones. Lancelot was assigned by the King to safely bring the Knights of the Apocalypse to the Liones kingdom, guiding them to unlock their potential without interfering much, but he had to change track due to the extreme odds posed by the Dark Talismans.
All the Knights of the Apocalypse Unite for the First Time
Without wasting much time, Lancelot decides to teleport the group directly to Liones Kingdom, and Percy is at once amazed by its splendor. After getting distracted, he gets separated from the group and meets the King of Liones himself, who is none other than Meliodas, the Dragon’s Sin of Wrath, the leader of the Seven Deadly Sins himself. Meliodas gives Percy a city tour, and Percy gets amused seeing giants and fairies living in harmony with humans and questions Meliodas about the absence of demons. Meliodas appreciates that Percival’s innocence is untainted by prejudice, and he asks for his help to avert the impending crisis. Percy needs to fit into his role as the Knight of the Prophecy in order to save Liones and the rest of the world in the near future.
As Percy gets distracted again while rushing through the streets of Liones, he comes across Chion, Jade, and Isodel, three Holy Knights of the city who mistakenly consider him to be a threat after seeing the fragment of the Coffin of Eternal Darkness. Chion deliberately tries to put Percy and his friends in jeopardy, and as Percy is engulfed by the fear of losing his friends, he taps into a primordial, unknown source of power, unlocking a decaying touch that drains life out of one of Chion’s hands. Meliodas and Elizabeth’s son, the half demon, half goddess prodigy Tristan, arrives in the nick of time to restrain Percy and save his friends, which clears the misunderstanding later on.
Tristan introduces himself as one of the Knights of the Apocalypse and also reveals Lancelot to be another one as well, which surprises Percy and his friends. Tristan had invited the final knight to Liones as well, but hasn’t been able to track the person ever since. Tristan takes Percy and Lancelot’s assistance to search for the final knight, as the trio begins to search by leading their groups (Lancelot alone). In the meantime, Holy Knight Pellegarde arrives in the city to capture Percy, although his motivation doesn’t seem to be aligned with Arthur, as he has grown to be fond of the little kid. Pellegarde’s dark aura is detected by nearly everyone, and as the Holy Knight starts unleashing his fury with flames, the final knight, Lady Gawain, reveals herself. She possesses the power of Sunshine, and as Pellegarde tries to flee after abducting Percy, she tries to kill the Holy Knight, much to Percy’s dismay, as he too has a soft corner for Pellegarde. Gawain’s conceited behavior is backed by her immense powers as she tries to battle with Percy and Tristan—until Pellegarde gives her a taste of her own medicine. Tristan allows an injured Pellegarde to flee, warning him of repercussions upon repeating the same mistake. All the Knights of Prophecy have finally arrived at Liones, and in proper time as well, as terror returns to Liones, as a reminder of a terrible past.
Did the Knights of the Prophecy Survive Their First Meeting With King Arthur?
Thanks to his position as the King of Chaos, Arthur summons two members of the dreadful Ten Commandments, Galand and Melascula—top enforcers of the Demon King who nearly ended Liones sixteen years ago—and sends them to the city to cause havoc and kill the Knights. As the Knights of the Apocalypse come face-to-face with Galand and Melascula, the demon enforcers quickly recognize their powers and traits to be familiar to those of the Sins. Gawain reflects the Lion’s Sin of Pride—Escanor’s strength; the all-rounder Lancelot is the son of Ban; Fox’s Sin of Greed; and Elaine, the fairy. Additionally, Arthur learns his own niece, Gawain, is one of the Knights, which, for some reason, feels pretty amusing to him.
Gawain and Percy manage to take care of Galand after much difficulty, and while undergoing a sudden bout of identity disorder, Melascula transforms into a giant snake. Tristan makes quick work of her using the strength of his demonic side, returning the demons to their former talisman state. On the other hand, Lancelot faces a peculiarly troubling situation as his former mentor, Jericho, infiltrates the royal castle to kill a captive Holy Knight of Camelot under Arthur’s orders. It is revealed that Jericho harbored feelings for her student, knowing full well that having a relationship with Lancelot would never be possible. Arthur gave her a chance to live this fantasy, which is why she swore her allegiance to him, and after completing her mission and confessing her feelings to Lancelot, she returns to Camelot as suddenly as she had arrived.
Meanwhile, Melascula and Galand once again emerge, this time as conjoined beings, and wreak havoc on Liones. Meliodas strangely remains fixated somewhere else, as he believes that visions of the future provided by the former King Bartra Liones, which have helped them for so long, might make Bartra a target of Arthur, and he goes to protect him. After a vicious battle that tests the mettle of all the knights, Tristan shows his unhinged, empowered side and, along with Percy’s power of hope, manages to end the conjoined demon enforcers.
A sound of clapping turns the knights’ attention to an unfamiliar presence, but the heroes of the past are well acquainted with the person in question. Tired of seeing his lackeys getting nullified by mere kids, King Arthur Pendragon has decided to pay a visit to the Knights, and behind him, the phantom ship carrying his Knights of Chaos hovers in the sky. Percy gets infuriated at once, blaming Arthur for the death of his grandpa, Varghese, and lunges to attack him, only to get swatted like a fly by the mere aura of Arthur. An empowered Tristan tries to do the same and gets the same result. Arthur unleashes ranged attack magic, which reveals itself like a background throne extension, and immobilizes everyone in the vicinity. As the King of Chaos demands obedience from his vanquished adversaries, the first season comes to an end. The second season, which will release later this year, will focus on the impending first conflict with the Knights and Arthur’s might, and for now, it seems even the Sins aren’t strong enough to take on the enigmatic Lord of Camelot. Strengthened by the primordial creator of everything, Chaos, Arthur is leagues above compared to the present state of the Knights, and with Merlin’s Sin of Gluttony by his side, he is unstoppable at present.
