Nanatsu no Taizai 123 Review: Hendricksen the Badass

Nanatsu no Taizai, Chapter 123: Atoning Great Holy Knight

The Knights Three (that's what I'm calling the three of them) react with surprise at Hendricksen's arrival, naturally, but Hendricksen pushes Griamor out of the way from the Ashen Demon's big 'splody breath attack. Hendricksen chides Griamor for a bit, and then tells him that Dreyfus is alive. Despite Griamor's protests, Hendricksen just takes charge of the battle.

The Ashen Demon is doing all the things that Hendricksen did when he was evil, first the 'Dark Snow' -- though Hauser and Gilthunder's giant explosive attacks stop it from sending them out. Then it does 'Dark Nebula'... which is simply blocked by Griamor's 'Long Shield'. Apparently he can create those kind of forcefield walls. Of course, Griamor didn't shield Hendricksen. I thought that was funny. We see Gilthunder mull over the power of the Ashen Demon for a bit, but Hendricksen just jumps into battle all slashing and dodging and generally looking like a fucking badass, and trash-talking the Ashen Demon. He's certainly on the side of the angels now, and this is how you handle side-changing of villains, not just some 'oh I see I need friendship you defeated me so now we are friends' that plague so many mangas out there.

Hendricksen gets hit, though, but Hauser stabs his sword into the Ashen Demon's hand and creates a tornado inside the Ashen's Demon hand and fucking blows it apart holy fuck it looks brutal. Gilthunder hits the Ashen Demon with a 'Thunderclap Strike', and then Hendricksen uses 'Purge', apparently instantly killing the Ashen Demon. Purge, of course, being the power of Holy Knight Zaratros that we saw not long ago in the Escanor side-story in the past. The Knights Three are, of course, freaking surprised -- Hendricksen's power is supposed to be Acid, after all.

Hendricksen then explains that Purge is a secret technique of the druid clan that erases abominable souls, and both Zaratras and Hendricksen are of the druid clan. But not Dreyfus! Dreyfus is apparently half-brothers to Zaratras. Hendricksen talks about how both he and Dreyfus admire Zaratras, but Gilthunder immediately asks the obvious -- why the fuck did the two of them kill Zaratras?

And then we get an unexpected flashback as Hendricksen tells a story -- how they were sent to investigate the gigantic hole that was Danafor, which is the beginning of everything.

Overall a pretty awesome chapter. It's nice to see these non-Sin characters be badasses. Hendricksen, of course, but all three Holy Knights get their moments. They took out the Ashen Demon -- not without difficulty, though... not just a simple one-shot-kill. And we get some backstory regarding Dreyfus and Hendricksen and Zaratras. Great stuff. I mean, I want to know what happened to Team Meliodas, but this stuff is interesting as well.