Ten Commandments

The are an extremely powerful group of ten elite warriors who are the strongest amongst the Demon Clan. Handpicked by the Demon King himself, each member possesses a, a unique power gifted to them by the Demon King, which delivers a unique curse to whomever breaks a rule specific to each member.

This power is absolute; it cannot be opposed even by its wielder, although members of the Ten Commandments are immune to all other Commandments except for their own. The curses will only be lifted if the victim defeats its wielder or at the victim's death. The Commandments can be removed from their wielder if they give their consent or if they are left powerless, unable to fight or die.

Following the Demon King's destruction and Zeldris's departure with Gelda, the Ten Commandments are officially disbanded.

Overview
The Ten Commandments were formed when the Demon King had put the Demon Realm under his control and planned to give half of his power to his servants, which would allow him to conquer all of existence at once. However, in order not to give too much power to a single individual and put his position at risk, he divided half of his power into ten fragments and handed them to ten of his elite warriors in the form of Commandments.

Three thousand years ago, the Ten Commandments fought for their race against the other four races (goddesses, giants, fairies, and humans) in the ancient Holy War. The Ten Commandments at that time were led by Meliodas until he ended up betraying them, killing two of its members, Aranak and Zeno, in the process that would later be replaced by Drole and Gloxinia. Another of its members, Gowther, left his position in the group when escaping from his prison in the Demon Realm and finally died, which resulted in his place being unofficially occupied by Fraudrin. The Archangel Mael, who had his identity manipulated by Gowther to turn it into "Estarossa", received Meliodas' Commandment and replaced him in the group. Calmadios also lost his place in the group at some point, being replaced by Zeldris.

The group was finally defeated and sealed by the Coffin of Eternal Darkness alongside the rest of the Demon Clan. At some point, being before sealed separately, Fraudrin was able to escape and began searching for ways to release his people, until the present day, where he manipulated Hendrickson into freeing the other nine members from the seal (as he did not have enough of Elizabeth's blood to break the seal completely).

As they were completely drained of their magical powers by an after effect of the seal, the Ten Commandments elected to head towards Edinburgh while leaving a terrified Hendrickson behind. Arriving at their destination, they were surprised to find a castle in ruins, and a giant hole bored into the land. Zeldris deduces that the hole was made by Meliodas, but they had no way of knowing the castle was destroyed by Escanor.

Their presences in Britannia awoke two of the Demon Clan's Albion; one at Camelot and the other at the Fairy King's Forest, which were destroyed by Meliodas and King. Sensing the Albions' destruction, Galand was delighted to know that there are still powerful people even in the current age and decided to take action despite them still having yet to recover their full power. He traveled all the way to Camelot in seventy-two high jumps and encountered three members of the Seven Deadly Sins. He easily overwhelmed them and annihilated almost half a portion of Camelot and its citizens and slaughtered its Holy Knights in battle. However, Gowther's power Invasion deluded Galand about having killed Meliodas, Diane, Slader, and Merlin.

Later on, the Commandments continued to rest and recover their magical power through eating the souls of humans they devoured and were shocked when they sensed Meliodas regain his full demonic powers at Istar.

Suddenly, Meliodas appeared out of nowhere through Merlin's teleportation and casually greeted the Ten Commandments who were surprised by his sudden appearance. Zeldris and Fraudrin were going to attack him but Galand told all of them to stay out of it as Meliodas is his prey to kill. Meliodas battled and defeated Galand in less than ten seconds before warning Zeldris that the Seven Deadly Sins will defeat the Ten Commandments with everything they got, warning them of their doom if they stepped out of line.

In response, Zeldris and Fraudrin attempted to attack Meliodas from both sides, but he was teleported back to Istar. Galand was angered and humiliated by his defeat at the hands of the "Accursed Demon".

As Galand complains and demands that Melascula find Meliodas, he is cut off by Zeldris as he tells him and the other demons that their goal is the domination of Britannia and commands the others to move out in groups of two (or more) in order to recover their magic power as quickly as possible and to use whatever methods they deem necessary to eradicate the other four races. Fraudrin then asks if this was a declaration of war against Meliodas which he replies saying that this is not war but an extermination.

Still angered by his defeat and the thought of Meliodas being "beyond" him, Galand tries to claim to have been able to defeat Meliodas any time he wanted. However, before he can finish his sentence he is stopped and warned about lying by Drole, questioning if he had forgotten that the Ten Commandments would incur their own curses on themselves if they break their own laws. Galand then lowers his head in response but still curses Meliodas in his mind. The Ten Commandments then disperse; Zeldris and Estarossa, however, remain behind.

Derieri and Monspeet arrive at the town of Bellford where they promptly eat many people's souls. Drole and Gloxinia arrive at Vaizel at the construction site of a new "brawl colosseum", because Gloxinia finds the site and activities surrounding it interesting. Meanwhile, Fraudrin arrives at the town of Ferson, where he is promptly attacked and seemingly defeated by members of the Pleiades of the Azure Sky, and then taken to the research tower in Zeldon, while Grayroad watches. Meanwhile, Melascula, who teamed up with Galand, begins to resurrect the dead all over Britannia in order to wipe out the living people.

Upon noticing that one of her zombies is resisting her magic, Galand and Melascula arrive to see what is happening. From there a great battle ensues between them and the Fox's Sin of Greed Ban and eventually the Lion's Sin of Pride Escanor which ultimately results in their defeat. Drole notices this, as well as what happened to Fraudrin, and relays this to his partner, as they patiently wait for all the unsuspecting prey to arrive at the "Fight Festival" they are holding to draw strong souls to them as a more efficient way of recovering their lost magic power.

Meanwhile, Fraudrin is being held captive by the Pleiades who intend to prove that humanity can best the ancient demons and even defeat a member of the legendary Ten Commandments. Fraudrin then reveals that he is not an actual member of the Ten Commandments, but a replacement for the missing member, Gowther. Grayroad then appears, disguised as Dogedo to retrieve Fraudrin. Denzel Liones, the leader of the Pleiades, lets them leave being cautious of Grayroad's Commandment. Fraudrin and Grayroad then walk out, with Fraudrin stabbing Deldry in the gut as revenge for their last battle. Before going, however, Fraudrin questions why he is leaving them alive, blaming his time in a human as making him soft, and decides to kill them all and destroys their base. As it crumbles, Fraudrin and Grayroad leave, ready to continue their mission. They are later seen resting in a cave.

Drole and Gloxinia decide to organize a Great Fight Festival as an efficient way to gather strong souls together. Meanwhile, Derieri and Monspeet have completely wiped out the populations of nine cities and towns in northern Britannia. Estarossa and Zeldris apparently parted ways at some points, as Zeldris went on to conquer Camelot's royal capital single-handedly.

Drole and Gloxinia's festival is short-lived, as they are unexpectedly attacked by a participant whose power suddenly spiked tremendously. Afterward, Meliodas attacks them both, and despite their best efforts, it seems he is going to kill them. But, before he can finish them off, all the other Commandments (except Galand) arrive to aid them. After a grueling battle, in which Melascula is incapacitated unexpectedly by Ban, Estarossa seemingly kills Meliodas, and the eight remaining Commandments set out to solidify their conquest of Britannia.

The month following Meliodas' defeat, the Ten Commandments have Britannia under their thumb. They send out legions of lesser demons to terrorize people and stamp out any resistance and it has become common practice to sacrifice Holy Knights and other with strong souls as a form of appeasement. Some people do this to protect themselves and their families while others do it out of genuine adoration of the Ten Commandments.

Eventually, they set their sights on conquering Liones, however, one after another they are defeated by members of the Seven Deadly Sins. Estarossa and Zeldris are sent flying by Escanor, and later Fraudrin is dealt with by a revived Meliodas, who definitively slays him. Grayroad, in turn, is captured by Merlin. Drole and Gloxinia are nowhere to be found during this great battle, attending to other matters and finally deciding to abandon the Commandments and return with their respective clans. Melascula is finally defeated by all the Sins and stripped of her powers, before being captured by Merlin.

The only members still active are Estarossa and Zeldris, as Derieri and Monspeet decided to not heed Zeldris' calling to gather the Commandments and live in peace after being defeated by Meliodas.

Later, when Meliodas decides to become the new Demon King to break Elizabeth's curse, he affirms that to achieve this he must acquire the same power as the Demon King, which he can achieve by absorbing all ten Commandments in himself. Already disposing of Grayroad's Commandment, Meliodas allied with Estarossa and Zeldris, who already possessed the Commandments of Gowther, Drole and Gloxinia and instructed them to recover the other Commandments.

Estarossa is able to locate a petrified Galand and kill him to take his Commandment. Currently, Zeldris yielded his Commandment is Meliodas to become the new Demon King, like the ones of Gowther, Grayroad, Gloxinia and Drole absorbing them in itself.

At the same time, Estarossa would seek for the rest. He finds Derieri and Monspeet and tries to take their decrees by force, but they fight him. Monspeet sacrifices himself to kill Estarossa and let Derieri escape. Estarossa, however, was not hurt and flies after Derieri to kill her for her Commandment but finds an "even greater prize" after finding Elizabeth away from Meliodas but is attacked by Tarmiel and Sariel of the Four Archangels and is forced to take in the Commandments of Truth and Silence in order to defeat them. To keep him from killing everyone, Elizabeth agrees to go with him and the two fly off.

Estarossa, whose soul is warped from possessing three Commandments at once, believes himself to be Meliodas and when Elizabeth tries to remind him of his true identity, he suddenly falls to Heaven's Theater where Elizabeth remembered how she and Meliodas used to come there in secret, but she is soon choked by Estarossa who has gone berserk from the power.

Believing that Meliodas will simply take Elizabeth back, whom he loves, Estarossa decides to devour her, so she will be with him forever but shortly after that, Derieri, King, Sariel, and Tarmiel all arrive and begin to attack him but their memories of Estarossa and Mael begin to warp around, and they notice the abnormalities in their memories and Gowther's forbidden spell begins to break and soon everyone who knew Mael start to remember the truth: Estarossa of the Ten Commandments never existed to begin with and his true identity is in fact, Mael of the Four Archangels. While others try to stop him, Mael kills Derieri and absorbs her Commandment, Purity. After almost being swallowed by the four Commandments, with the aid of Gowther, he released them, and now he is back to normal again.

Earlier, at Camelot Castle, the Assault Force manages to penetrate through Meliodas's barrier into the exterior where they are greeted by the sole remaining member of the Ten Commandments, Zeldris, along with the transformed Cusack and Chandler who are opposed by Merlin, Escanor and Ludociel.

Due to the efforts of Merlin, Escanor and Ludociel, the three demons are defeated just as everyone's memories of Estarossa go back to being of Mael and it gives Zeldris, Cusack and Chandler the chance to regenerate their wounds and seeing their chances of victory, Chandler and Cusack decide to merge back into the one being they both are halves of: the Original Demon.

The Original Demon overpowers Escanor who is slowly weakening due to it being past noon, but the fight is interfered when King's Chastiefol comes flying at him but is canceled out by Zeldris who explains to King that they are not the only ones heading to Camelot, to which they realize the four Commandments that Mael expelled from his body are joined together and heading towards Camelot.

As the four Commandments near, Melascula's Commandment forcibly leaves her and joins up with the four as the five dive into Meliodas' cocoon and join with the over five, giving Meliodas all of the Commandments. Merlin refuses to let it end as she attempts to stop time in the cocoon to Zeldris and the Original Demon's displeasure as they attempt to attack Merlin but are held back by Escanor and King's weapon which are quickly dealt with, but Ludociel takes on the Original Demon in Escanor's place as Mael appears and begins to battle Zeldris who loses his composure when he realizes that their defeat will mean that Gelda will remain sealed forever before he collapses and everyone celebrates the end of the Holy War until Hawk realizes that the cocoon is empty.

Everyone is frozen in shock and fear while Zeldris weakly laughs and says that the "Demon King" better keep his promise as Meliodas appears as the new Demon King, having successfully absorbed all of the Commandments.

Meliodas begins to congratulate the Sins, Elizabeth, and the "rare beast", Hawk, on their efforts until Elizabeth notes that he is not Meliodas while Zeldris tells Meliodas to keep his end of the deal by telling him where Gelda's seal is, only for Meliodas to say he is disappointed with how Zeldris has allowed his heart to be captured by a mere vampire, which shocks him, until Zeldris realizes that their father, the Demon King, is possessing Meliodas' body to his shock and is confused as he was told that the Demon King wanted Meliodas to be his successor, to which his father explains that he was never going to give up his throne to anyone and all he wanted to be a younger, stronger body and goes on to explain that the Commandments are fragments of his own power so by absorbing them all into his body, Meliodas has become the Demon King's new vessel.

While the Seven Deadly Sins, along with Elizabeth, Hawk, Ludociel, and Mael all confront the Demon King, Zeldris decides to go against his father, claiming that his business was with Meliodas and not him but decides to ask his father if he was aware of his relationship with Gelda, but the Demon King responds with saying that he always knew and is disappointed with Zeldris for being weak, claiming it was his "disease" and says he no longer has a use for his second son and creates an entity called the "Fleeting Hermit" to deal with his useless son, but Zeldris manages to hold it off on his own but is caught off guard from a surprise attack from his father himself and falls to the ground defeated and loses consciousness, but not before silently cheering for Meliodas to defeat their father.

Later, after the Demon King was forced out of Meliodas by Ban and the others, Cusack and Chandler regain consciousness while the others are celebrating the Demon King's defeat as they notice the Commandments having been forced out of Meliodas and Cusack is horrified to see Zeldris lying on the ground dying.

Chandler tells Cusack to leave him behind as he is worthless and that they should focus on getting the Commandments back to Meliodas, but Cusack kills his other half to prevent him from saving Zeldris as he grabs his pupil and the Commandments and flees to a cave where he safely imbues Zeldris with the Commandments who awakens and is horrified, realizing that his father will take over his body but is too weak to stop Cusack before the Commandments fly into his body and later emerges from a cocoon, with the Demon King having survived by taking Zeldris as his new vessel and kills Cusack, being disgusted by him and no longer having a use for him.

After the Sins find out that Elizabeth's curse has been reactivated, Meliodas and Elizabeth immediately realize that Zeldris is the only other person besides Meliodas who could take in all of the Commandments, but the Demon King has already taken notice of the portal to the Demon Realm opened by Merlin and rips it open again to unleash an Indura in order to distract the Sins long enough for him to recover his magic so he can fully assimilate with Zeldris' body and become unstoppable.

Then others go deal with the Indura, while Meliodas stays behind with Elizabeth as his power is equal to his father's and thus only he can protect her from the curse but also realizes that Zeldris will be at their father's mercy if he does not help him. However, Elizabeth decides to risk her life despite the curse being active to help Meliodas save his younger brother, claiming him to be her family as well and the two immediately set off for Lake Salisbury where the Demon King plans to recover his magic as quick as possible.

Meliodas and Elizabeth arrive at the lake to find the Demon King waiting for them and as soon as they land, a terrible storm occurs and the Demon King tells Meliodas that the world is outraged because it does not need two gods of darkness, but Meliodas himself counters by saying it does not need any god at all before he claims that every tragedy that has befallen Britannia is because of his petty rivalry with the Supreme Deity over who is the superior being.

The father and son clash but the Demon King notices that Meliodas is not using his own godly power out of fear of accidentally killing Zeldris, to which the Demon King takes full advantage of by creating a fake Gelda within Zeldris' mindscape to make him give up on the real world, thus allowing the Demon King to assimilate with his body faster as Meliodas realizes to his horror that his younger brother is dying.

Reaching a fully mature state, the Demon King explains that Zeldris is gone but Meliodas refuses to accept his brother's supposed death and attacks regardless, but suddenly the Demon King is attacked by the remains of the Chimera Indura sent by Ban and the others, who come to help Meliodas fight his father again; Meliodas himself tries to persuade them to leave as he believes he does not deserve their help but Ban reminds him they are the Seven Deadly Sins and they resolve to stop the Demon King once and for all.

With the help of the Sins and Escanor's arrival, Gowther uses his magic to get him and Meliodas into Zeldris' mindscape where they find him, still alive but captured by the fake Gelda. Meliodas calls out to him and initially Zeldris is skeptical of Meliodas' actions until he himself says he's here to save him. The fake Gelda attempts to persuade him by saying he killed her but Zeldris cuts her off by saying he knew she was not the real Gelda and was merely holding onto the faint hope it was her, thus forcing the Demon King to take extreme measures to prevent Zeldris from taking back control of his body by creating an illusion even he himself cannot discern.

While the Demon King gains the upper hand in the physical world, the real Gelda intervenes by ingesting some of Zeldris' blood which connects her to his mindscape and she is able to find the real Zeldris, and thanks to Meliodas' own intervention, he finally realizes he has to fight his father to be free of his grasp and fights against the illusions his father creates to make Meliodas seem like a traitor again but Zeldris comes to terms with the fact that he carries some of the guilt alongside his brother and that they both want the same thing: to be free of their father's reign.

With that, Zeldris begins to force the Commandments out of his body and the Demon King with them, who tries to reclaim Zeldris' body but fails due to Ban grabbing him beforehand and desperates tries to destroy the Sins by posessing the land of Britannia itself to stop the Sins and both of his rebellious sons.

The Sins however do not back down and combine their powers together with Meliodas' Full Counter to create an attack powerful enough that not even the Demon King can withstand and due to his false pleas and refusal to change his ways, he is annihilated by Meliodas' attack and in turn tells his son what destroying him will do to the balance of the world, but Meliodas accepts to face whatever comes next head-on, before the Demon King vanishes.

Despite defeating the Demon King, the others are shocked to find the Commandments have not been destroyed and Merlin claims that as a god, the Demon King cannot be truly annihilated unless by a power equal to or greater than a god's, such as Meliodas' own true power.

Meliodas taps into his hidden power and plans to throw it at the Commandments, which will cancel each other out, thus destroying the Demon King forever. However, Zeldris claims to him that he could take their father's place to which Meliodas agrees but they both realize power is not what they sought before Meliodas sacrifices his own to destroy the Commandments once and for all, thus ending the Holy War for good.

Former

 * Zeldris the Piety: Ominous Nebula; God (61,000)
 * Estarossa the Love: Full Counter (60,000)
 * Drole the Patience: Ground (54,000)
 * Monspeet the Reticence: Trick Star (53,000)
 * Derieri the Purity: Combo Star (52,000)
 * Gloxinia the Repose: Disaster (50,000)
 * Grayroad the Pacifism: Curse (39,000)
 * Melascula the Faith: Hell Gate (34,000)
 * Fraudrin the Selflessness: Full Size (31,000)
 * Galand the Truth: Critical Over (27,000)

3,000 years ago

 * Meliodas the Love: Full Counter (142,000)
 * Gowther the Selflessness: Invasion (Unknown)
 * Calmadios the Piety: Unknown
 * Aranak the Repose: Unknown
 * Zeno the Patience: Unknown

Other

 * Chimera Indura: Unknown (50,000+)

Gallery
Manga=

Trivia

 * The "Commandments" from which the group's name is derived all seem to be loosely based on the real Ten Commandments from the Abrahamic religions.
 * Zeldris is the only member of the Ten Commandments not to be killed or captured by the end of the Holy War and the only one who became an ally of the Seven Deadly Sins in the end, while the others were either killed or captured by Merlin after being defeated.
 * Estarossa technically becomes an ally as he was Mael brainwashed by the original Gowther until the forbidden spell was broken and he regained control of his mind and chose to help the Sins.
 * Derieri also becomes an ally when she resolves to save Elizabeth from Estarossa and later decides to help her save Mael, despite him killing Monspeet, but later falls to him as well before he uses a spell to reincarnate her with her memories fully intact.
 * However Galand would be revived later on in 4 Knights of apocalypse as Chaos Galand by Melascula now as Chaos Melascula
 * However both Galand and Melascula would be killed by Tristan later on
 * When the original Ten Commandments were shown back when Meliodas was the leader, Estarossa is one of the nine other demons alongside him as a child. However, Mael was turned into Estarossa after he turned into an adult, so it doesn't show the member whom the false memories were having him swap places with.