Zeldris

is the current king of the Demon Clan, the lover of the Vampire, Gelda, the younger brother of Meliodas, and the youngest son of the previous Demon King. Formerly, Zeldris was an elite warrior of his clan, serving his father as his representative and executioner. He was also the leader and Piety of the Ten Commandments that served under his father's reign.

Sixteen years after his father and the Supreme Deity were defeated, during the events of Four Knights of the Apocalypse, Zeldris is now the ruler of the Demon Realm.

Appearance
Zeldris is a short yet muscular young man. He greatly resembles his brother Meliodas, though with a few slight differences. His hair is spikey black and grows counterclockwise to Meliodas' and they both have the same demon mark, except his is over his left eye instead of his right. Zeldris can change his Demon Mark to become similar to his older brother's second and full demon marks.

His attire is a bodysuit, crimson in color, and has a white insignia in several places. The suit has an open collar and exposes his chest. He has silver gauntlets and carries his sword with a strap on his hip.

Sixteen years later, during the event of Four Knights of the Apocalypse, Zeldris' current attire is his demon power covering his entire body, only leaving the chest area visibly open.

Personality
Zeldris is very calm and collected, seemingly not easy to anger. Like his brother, Meliodas, Zeldris appears to have a good commanding and leadership skills.

Zeldris is highly confident in his abilities. Clashing with his own brother Meliodas in the past, a very powerful opponent and remains unfazed at the prospect of doing so again and even initiating an attack against him. His confidence in his own abilities develops a certain degree of arrogance towards beings weaker than him. Likewise, he doubts Fraudrin's abilities because of him not being able to obliterate a country of humans. Zeldris is even confident that he alone is more than enough to deal with the Seven Deadly Sins, even smiling as he claims so and also believing that he is more powerful than Meliodas and therefore more worthy to be the new Demon King, and unhesitantly taking on his brother again now in full power alongside Estarossa. He has even shown himself to be capable of enjoying fights, as shown by how he gave a taunting smirk at his opponents upon unleashing his full power and leaving them all powerless and even not only showed absolutely no fear when Mael, who was as powerful as his older brother, arrived but even showed actual eagerness to fight him. However, despite this arrogance, Zeldris himself has said that unlike Meliodas's former self, who Zeldris describes as underestimating his opponents so much that he tends to toy with them, he doesn't take opponents lightly and uses his full power no matter who his foe is.

However, Zeldris has limits in his patience and, although he rarely shows it, is not above mocking and showing negative responses at the ones he had an antagonistic relationship with. This is displayed by how he repeatedly took time to show his grudge at Meliodas and most of all Elizabeth, who he mocked in their short conversation and showing tremendous anger at her for being the reason of his brother's betrayal. Zeldris also was visibly angered by Drole and Gloxinia's betrayal, saying openly that a Giant and Fairy King can never work properly with the Demon Clan. He also gets angry after learning that Meliodas is set to be the new Demon King and showed furious rage when fighting and being easily subdued by his elder brother, who is now back to full power.

Zeldris was shown relapsing on his cool-headed persona when it comes to Gelda, showing excitement as his reunion with her getting closer or becoming desperate and angry when Merlin and the others try to stop Meliodas from becoming Demon King, thus preventing Zeldris to reunite with his lover.

Despite being seemingly ruthless and cold-hearted, Zeldris was once much better. Meliodas has stated that Zeldris idolized Meliodas greatly when he was still the leader of the Ten Commandments and was seen with a smile in his face when around him. He also said that Zeldris was almost sincere and honest to a fault. The main reason for Zeldris' cold-heartedness was because he had fallen in love with the Vampiress Gelda and unlike almost all other demons, he only sought to protect her rather than being interested in triumphing over the Goddess Clan. Upon being ordered by his father to kill the Vampire Clan, in the end, overwhelmed by the indescribable pain to the point of bursting to tears, he could not bring himself to do it and instead sealed them all away for Gelda's sake, showing how deeply he loved her and valued his romantic relationship with her in the past. The pain of being betrayed by his elder brother who he looked up to and the great suffering he endured from losing his lover made Zeldris the demon he is now, which only served to increase his anger for Meliodas' betrayal tremendously. He is thus unwilling to negotiate with Meliodas and clearly shows his strong grudge towards him, to the point that he openly said that the only thing he has is his rage towards Meliodas as well as his desire for vengeance towards the other Clans. His rage towards Elizabeth has been seen to be even greater, as she is the true reason why Meliodas betrayed the Demons at all, as shown by how he acts much more openly antagonistically towards her than he did with Meliodas, openly displaying mockery when she arrived and said she didn't know him and he quickly lashed out by coldly saying how she made Meliodas suffer and continued to display clear resentment at her, retaining a scowl on his face, even more so after she instead smiled from what he said, eventually escalating in Zeldris angrily telling her to remember everything and the sin she committed. He may have even planned to activate her curse from their conversation in order to relish in Meliodas's suffering, implying a cruel desire to make his brother feel exactly what he felt when he lost Gelda.

However, it has been seen that Zeldris still retains fractions of his good side, as he shows his belief that Meliodas is suffering due to having betrayed his clan after meeting Elizabeth, indicating Zeldris possess some doubts on their estranged relationship. He later seemed to silently contemplate forgiving Meliodas when Meliodas apologized to him. While ruthless against traitors, Zeldris displays a sense of loyalty to his comrades who are loyal, as shown by the fact that even though he later stated he never saw Estarossa as a brother and was relieved by how Estarossa was actually Mael and never his brother, he still went as far as to save him from an attack that could kill him and asked him to rest after he woke, although this didn't prevent him from using Estarossa as a pawn to hasten the gathering of the Commandments by having him self-destruct upon collecting too much, and he was later clearly against Estarossa's indication that he wanted the other Commandments to be killed just to get their Commandments more quickly. He also asked Cusack to stay away when he went to help him after Zeldris was pinned down by Meliodas despite Cusack's help being undoubtedly useful. Also, when Ludociel called him out on slashing a woman's face, Zeldris responded by saying that at least he and his brother would never take control of a woman's body, implying although ruthless against enemies even if they are women, Zeldris disliked any unnecessary violence towards them. The only reason he wanted to become the Demon King at all was to revive Gelda, who Zeldris initially believed to have been killed and when Meliodas revealed he only re-sealed Gelda and offered to undo the seal placed upon her as soon as he becomes the new Demon King, Zeldris quickly abandons any desire to that title and even goes as far as to assist Meliodas with the recovery of the Commandments, giving them up to him, including his own, and protecting him while he's absorbing them. Not only that, the moment he realized his father would not allow him to be reunited with Gelda, he quickly turned against him. The Demon King also noted Zeldris continued to desire to bring peace and harmony to the underworld, showing despite how much he had changed, deep down he still remains the good demon he used to be before he lost Gelda.

3,000 years ago
Zeldris was mentored by Cusack and Meliodas in combat before he completed his training and stopped learning under his master. He idolized his elder brother when he was the leader of the Ten Commandments and at some time fell in love with the vampire Gelda.

Upon discovering that Meliodas intended to abandon the Demon Clan, Zeldris confronted him. Meliodas reveals that he does it for the person he wants to protect with all his heart, leading Zeldris to confirm the truth about the relationship that Meliodas maintained with the goddess Elizabeth. Meliodas offered to leave with them along Gelda. However, Zeldris rejected it stating that from there he would no longer consider him as his brother, something he would come to regret later on.

During the great war, Zeldris was tasked with executing the Vampire Clan who attempted to overthrow the Demon King. However, instead of killing them, he sealed them away for Gelda's sake. He also said he had met and likely fought the goddess Elizabeth in the Holy War.

Memories of the Holy War arc
Near the end of the war, he was sent to capture or kill the recently escaped Gowther, during which he easily defeated the Giant King Drole, and offered him and the Fairy King positions in the Ten Commandments.

As a result of the forbidden spell used by Gowther, the memories of Zeldris were altered to believe that the Archangel Mael was his older brother "Estarossa".

Along with the rest of the Demon Clan, Zeldris was sealed away by the Goddess Clan after losing the Holy War against the Four Races (Human, Fairy, Giant and Goddess Clans).

Abilities and Equipment
As the leader of the Ten Commandments, younger brother of Meliodas, and son of the Demon King himself, Zeldris is an extremely powerful demon. According to Meliodas, due to having being lent the magic power of the Demon King, Zeldris' power can equal that of the Demon King and Supreme Deity, and that he has the power to remove the curse on him and Elizabeth. However, once Meliodas returned to become Demon King, he realizes that he overestimated Zeldris and states that even with the power Zeldris borrowed from their father, Zeldris' power still pales in comparison to the true power of the Demon King to which Zeldris agrees. His aura alone terrified Arthur Pendragon, who states that his power rivals that of his old mentor, Cusack. His aura is also strong enough to completely terrify the countless heroes inside Excalibur. Even Cusack and Chandler, the two highest-ranked demons, fear his original magic power. Cusack stated that Zeldris is destined to surpass him.

Like all members of the Demon Clan, Zeldris possesses the mysterious jet-black power of darkness which he can use for a variety of purposes, such as forming wings to fly. His aura, combined with the aura of the other Ten Commandments is so terrifying that it made the normally calm Hendrickson sweat in fear by their presence and unnerved Meliodas when he sensed it from several kilometers away. He is capable of inflicting a curse on Merlin, an individual with natural resistance to the effects of demonic magic, which would have killed her and was so powerful that even Hendrickson, who spent years studying Druid magic, was powerless to do anything to save her. He has the ability to telepathically communicate with the other Commandments even throughout all of Britannia. Due to being the Demon King's representative, he is able to grant the Commandments to others and remove them from any member of the Ten Commandments if they allow it or if they are unable to fight back, as shown when he was able to strip Drole and Gloxinia of their status as members of the Ten Commandments. He is shown capable of suppressing the powers of others, even ones as powerful as the Giant King Drole, due to being lent the magic power of the Demon King. Zeldris can enlarge his demon mark to different stages like Meliodas. When at full power his mark becomes similar to Meliodas' complete Demon Mark. Zeldris is the only demon alongside Meliodas known to be capable of surviving taking in multiple Commandments into himself.

Zeldris possesses immense levels of skill in combat, as he was trained by both Cusack and Meliodas. He was able to single-handedly easily render Camelot's entire military forces, the second most powerful kingdom in Britannia, completely powerless, without sustaining any injury. His fighting style seems to rely mostly on kicks, as shown during his fight with Mael and according to King, his skills in hand to hand combat are on the same level as Meliodas. Furthermore, he is capable of getting the better of his older brother, Meliodas, when he had not regained his true full strength and easily brought down Drole, the Giant King, with a single kick. He has shown to be extremely fast and has extraordinary reflexes, cutting Meliodas' arm off in one swing before the latter was able to behead him. His speed in swordsmanship is said to be the fastest in all of the Demon Realm, which is proven true, as shown when he fights evenly with Ludociel in swordsmanship, only getting one more injury. He is extremely durable, as he was unfazed after taking a kick by Meliodas to his head with his demon mark activated and even survived being hit by Escanor's Cruel Sun at close range. Even when hit by a very powerful attack from Ludociel, he only sustained minor bruises. He even survived a powerful finger-jab to the stomach from Escanor's The One form and even Ludociel's Gold Shining although he was severely injured from the attacks. He also possesses tremendous physical strength, as shown when he held back Escanor's Divine Sword Escanor attack for a significant amount of time before falling back.

Abilities

 * Zeldris' innate power. This power creates a vortex that surrounds and attracts all living beings around him that are sliced at a god-like speed by pure reflexes when anyone comes in contact.


 * According to Zeldris, the Demon King lent a portion of his magic power to him for him to use. When using his father's power, Zeldris is able to completely nullify all magical attacks.


 * A mysterious ability possessed by Zeldris that allows him to generate black flames. It also has the additional effect of nullifying an immortal's regeneration.


 * Zeldris summons a portal over his desired target, and releases a massive lightning bolt to strike them down.

Combined Techniques

 * Zeldris uses his Hellblaze-infused sword to impale the opponent caught in Gelda's Kaijinso.
 * Zeldris and Meliodas attack the enemy with their swords imbued in the power of darkness.

Commandment
Zeldris was bestowed with the Commandment of by the Demon King. Any who turn their back to Zeldris are treated as committing an act of treachery and are cursed into serving the Demon King, and by extension Zeldris himself who is acting as the Demon King's representative. After being forced to absorb all the Commandments by Cusack, Zeldris held all the Commandments but at the cost of having his body possessed by his father, the Demon King. However, thanks to the intervention of his brother, Elizabeth, the Sins and Gelda, the Commandments were forced out of Zeldris' body and freed him from his father's grasp.

Weapons

 * Shortsword: Zeldris wields a shortsword with a sharp point on the end. He is tremendously skilled in swordsmanship, using it in a manner similar to Iaido. He recieved this sword from Meliodas with the Goddess Clan symbol on it.

Meliodas
Zeldris once idolized Meliodas when he was the leader of the Ten Commandments and was trained in combat by him. When Meliodas was about to betray the Ten Commandments and the Demon Clan to be with Elizabeth, Zeldris immediately confronted him and tried to make his brother stop, being distraught at the fact that he would have to fight his brother, but when Meliodas refused to stop and told him to come with him and take Gelda, Zeldris angrily rejected Meliodas. The last straw came when the betrayal caused the Vampire Clan to attempt to revolt against the Demon King, forcing Zeldris to seal them away as the Demon King ordered Zeldris to execute them but Zeldris could not as Gelda was among the Vampires, Zeldris came to greatly resent Meliodas and harbors extreme anger towards his traitorous brother, as he was forced to separate with his lover due to his betrayal.

Zeldris remained unforgiving of Meliodas' actions despite knowing that Meliodas harbors guilt for that and refused to negotiate with him. He has said that one of the things left in him is his rage towards Meliodas, showing just how much Zeldris came to despise him. Hence, he did not care that Estarossa killed Meliodas, likely being even pleased that his elder brother was no longer an obstacle to his plans and possibly that Gelda's death was avenged, although whether he is aware of Gelda being killed by Meliodas remains unknown but it is safe to assume that as he has seen the hole in Edinburgh that he did, which likely made his resentment towards Meliodas even greater, and even confidently attacked him head-on without hesitation, but he was most likely aware that Meliodas would resurrect eventually.

However, Zeldris himself apparently views Meliodas is suffering around Elizabeth and does blame her for his brother's betrayal, implying he does feel some doubt in their strangeness. Nevertheless, any bond they had has vanished despite Zeldris apparently having some doubts on his antagonism towards his older brother and finds his actions and betrayal towards the Demon Clan and the fact that his betrayal forced him to seal away Gelda to be unacceptable and unforgivable.

Zeldris also expressed outrage at The Demon King's order to retrieve and crown Meliodas as the New Demon King and was quick to furiously attack him alongside Estarossa and expressed absolute rage when Meliodas easily subdued him, still trying to get up despite the overwhelming power Meliodas exerted to pin him down. Meliodas then quietly tells Zeldris that Gelda is still alive, but sealed away. He promises Zeldris that he will release the seal he has placed on her, as soon as he becomes the new Demon King, which leads to Zeldris reluctantly agreeing to cooperate with Meliodas, although this alliance does not stop Zeldris from mocking Meliodas when Elizabeth escaped, but they still work well in combat together against Arthur. The fact that Zeldris trusts Meliodas will fulfill his promise implies he still has some trust in his elder brother.

Meliodas would later apologize to Zeldris, asking for forgiveness for being the kind of older brother he had been. Zeldris is silent, but seems to be pondering what Meliodas said which may indicate that they both did have some desire to reconcile and subconsciously care for each other when it happened.

Although Zeldris has not forgiven Meliodas yet, he still admires him for being able to do what Zeldris could not; making the world his enemy for those that he holds dear to him and for that Zeldris believes that Meliodas can change everything, even trusting the future to his older brother. After defeating the Demon King, Meliodas invites Zeldris to a party with the rest. Zeldris declines, but states that if it was just him and Meliodas, he would consider. This shows that Zeldris still shows warmth towards his older brother.

Elizabeth
Being the Goddess that had turned Meliodas against the Demon Clan, it is only natural Zeldris had clear resentment and anger towards her for making his brother betray him, having tried to make Meliodas abandon his feelings for her and return to the Demons. This anger intensified greatly when Meliodas's actions lead to him being forced to seal away Gelda, to where it seems his hatred of her far exceeds his anger towards Meliodas, as shown by how he greeted her incarnation mockingly when they met in the mindscape where Zeldris cursed Merlin before quickly losing his usual calm composure and showing his rage at Elizabeth for turning Meliodas against the Demon Clan and making him suffer continuously and seeming to relish in the idea of Elizabeth regaining her memories, activating her curse and dying in 3 days. He later expressed absolute contempt and rage at Meliodas for his desire to take the power their father had lent him only to break Elizabeth's curse and only agreed to help when Meliodas promised to reunite him with Gelda.

Elizabeth on the other hand doesn't hate Zeldris even after his callous and cruel treatment of her and instead sympathizes with him and feels guilty over the tragedy that befell his relationship with Gelda. After he and Gelda were reunited, it seems Zeldris had lost his hatred towards Elizabeth and even visited her and Meliodas.

Mael
While Mael was Estarossa, as Zeldris noted it, he never really looked up to him as an older brother, but nevertheless seemed to still care for him if only as Estarossa was a comrade as a fellow member of the Ten Commandments, as he risked himself to save Estarossa from Escanor's attack and showed some concern when Estarossa woke up, telling him to rest as he was still injured. He also warned Estarossa to not even try to absorb the Commandments he would retrieve, but this turned out to be a ploy as Zeldris wanted Estarossa to take in as much Commandment as possible so that when it comes to it, Melascula's Commandment would also be forcibly retrieved so Meliodas could become Demon King.

When he remembered everything, Zeldris reacted with apathy, expressing his contempt towards Estarossa, and showed little reaction to him returning to being Mael. When they fought one another, Zeldris had no hesitation fighting him and even seemed eager to fight with the Angel of Death, smirking as they began to fight, and when Mael tried to reach Zeldris by the memories they had as brothers, Zeldris simply laughed in mockery as his Estarossa self and Zeldris were never close at all and continued to fight him but he became enraged and increasingly frustrated as Mael overwhelmed him in combat until when Mael pointed out how Zeldris would be dooming Meliodas by turning him into the Demon King, he lost his temper and managed to blitz him. Even when Mael saved him from the impact of the Seven Deadly Sins's final attack on the Demon King, Zeldris still showed hostilety towards him and quickly brushed his help off.

Gelda
At some time during the war with the Goddess Clan, Zeldris met and fell in love with the Vampire Gelda. His desire to protect her was what drove him to become the ruthless and cold-hearted executioner of the Demon King according to Meliodas, with Meliodas himself saying that Zeldris worked so hard and desperate that even he does not understand why until he met Elizabeth. When the time came for Zeldris to execute the Vampire Clan, having to kill the one woman he loved caused him great suffering, and he ultimately could not bring himself to do it, instead sealing her and the Vampire Clan away. It was this event that soured Zeldris' relationship with Meliodas. After learning of Gelda's seeming death, Zeldris became obsessed with becoming Demon King solely to be capable of reviving her and when Meliodas revealed her sealed state and promised to break it when he became Demon King, Zeldris quickly accepted to work with him and diligently worked to ensure Meliodas became Demon King all just to make sure Gelda would be free. He even smiled when their reunion seemed so close when Meliodas finally absorbed all Ten Commandments.

Cusack
Cusack is Zeldris' old mentor and is very attached to him. Zeldris appears to hold him at high regard, as he believed with Cusack and Chandler, they can easily fill in the vacant spots of the Ten Commandments, but is annoyed by Cusack's displays of affection for him. He also had no qualms calling Cusack's tea and advice horrible. However, he does show some care for him when he told him not to charge at Meliodas after his elder brother easily pinned him down, knowing that his mentor is no match for his elder brother's full power.

Percival
Both Zeldris and Gelda view Percival as their own son.

Great Fight Festival arc

 * Meliodas vs. Ten Commandments: Win

Prelude to the New Holy War arc

 * Arthur Pendragon vs. Meliodas, Zeldris, Cusack & Chandler: Win

New Holy War arc

 * Assault Force vs. Zeldris, Chandler & Cusack: Loss
 * Seven Deadly Sins & Four Archangels vs. Zeldris & Original Demon : Loss
 * Seven Deadly Sins, Four Archangels & Zeldris vs. Demon King: Win

Trivia

 * According to the official fanbook:
 * Handedness: Right-handed
 * Birthplace: Demon Realm
 * Special ability: Execution
 * Hobbies: Dragon hunting
 * Daily Routine: Goddess slaying
 * Favorite food: Dragon meat
 * Dream/Hope: Perfect victory
 * Charmpoint: Nothing
 * Zeldris' Commandment, Piety, appears to be based on the first of the Ten Commandments of the Jewish/Christian religion: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me", which forbids the act of idolatry (worshipping another god).
 * Both Zeldris and Meliodas are voiced by Yūki Kaji (Japanese) and Bryce Papenbrook (English).
 * Zeldris is the shortest member of the Ten Commandments.
 * Zeldris placed 5th in the second popularity poll.
 * Zeldris and Meliodas are equal in both height (152 cm) and weight (50 kg).

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