Vampires of Edinburgh

is a series of three special manga chapters released alongside the Nanatsu no Taizai anime. It serves to introduce Escanor before his role in the main story, as well as tease hints of Zeldris's background lore. The story corresponds to chapters 112.5, 115.5, and 119.5 in terms of chronological release.

Short Summary
Twelve years before the events of the main story, the vampire clan has broken free of their seal of containment and reentered the world. They seize control of Edinburgh castle and possess its holy knights. Zaratras assigns the Seven Deadly Sins with the mission of retaking Edinburgh castle and defeating the vampires. All seven of the Deadly Sins cooperate, ending with the slaying of the vampire king by Escanor and the vampire royal family by the other Deadly Sins. This presumably ends the vampire clan and its threat for good.

Long Summary
Twelve years before the main storyline, the ancient clan of vampires, subordinates of the demon clan 3,000 years ago and sealed since then, has awakened. They attack the kingdom of Edinburgh, overwhelm the holy knights there, and seize the castle under their control. Their victims become possessed thralls resembling vampires, forced to obey them.

The possessed minions seek the king, but the Great Holy Knight Zaratras intervenes and defeats them almost instantly. He uses purge to expel the vampiric possession and allow the men to die permanently. Zaratras immediately sends for the Seven Deadly Sins, tasking them with investigating and defeating this new evil.

Back at their meeting point, Ban and Meliodas are in a standoff. Having lost a bet, Meliodas was forced to cook a meal for Ban. Unfortunately for Ban, Meliodas is an awful cook, and his meal turned out to be a twisted pile of something resembling poison. Meliodas fulfilled his responsibility for losing the bet, but now Ban was refusing to follow through with his role and graciously eat the prepared food. Ban claims the food will poison and kill him. Meliodas assures no such fate would befall him and the food is perfectly fine.

Interrupting this spectacle (to Ban's relief), Merlin debriefs the gathered Sins on their mission. Six vampires of considerable power have taken control of Edinburgh and possessed all of its holy knights. A large-scale assault against such beings would only lead to more casualties, and Zaratras, Dreyfus, and Hendrickson must remain behind to protect Liones, so the Sins quickly realize it's up to them to handle the mission on their own strength.

There's just one problem: The king of the vampires has the power to control the time of day, and has created a state of perpetual night time over the castle of Edinburgh. At night, vampires are twice as strong as usual. Furthermore, his spell has twisted the castle spatially, preventing Merlin's teleportation and limiting them tactically.

Meliodas shows no hesitation. As captain of the Seven Deadly Sins, Meliodas orders everyone to simply charge in. He reasons that if they know nothing about the vampires involved, the vampires also know nothing about the Seven Deadly Sins. Since the Sins work better without teamwork, everyone operating independently should maximize their effectiveness. The others are shocked at such a reckless and transparent strategy, but Merlin seems unsurprised, and they resign themselves to follow the captain's plan. Meliodas ends the strategy meeting with the optimistic promise that they'll all definitely return alive.

Before heading in, Meliodas is pacing in his room when a young "Ellie" peeks open his door to observe him. He kneels down and asks her what she's doing wandering around the castle so late at night, kindly introducing himself as one of her father's friends. A young boy, Reonica, who is affiliated with Margaret, enters in a rush. He chastises Ellie, saying she will be eaten by ghosts if she walks around at night like this. Then he warns her that Meliodas is a criminal to be avoided. Ellie seems unsure how to react as she's ushered off.

The scene jumps forward to the attack. Ban has been sent in first as the vanguard, informally tasked with reconnaissance and disguised in a suit of armor. He quickly runs into a couple of minions, whom he easily tears apart. Witnessing his surprising power from afar through magic, the vampire king sends in a real vampire to stop him.

Lamenting the weakness of his opponents, Ban stumbles onto the waiting member of vampire royalty, Orlondi, one of the six powers sensed by Merlin before the attack. The vampire fires tentacles into Ban's chest, which carry a paralyzing poison and allow him to pump Ban's blood directly back to him. The vampire is delighted to taste Ban's blood, even more so when he discovers Ban's blood regenerates ceaselessly, creating an unending supply of blood to be sucked. Orlondi excitedly imagines a plan to kidnap Ban for use as a permanent blood bag that he can drink to his content. He does a double take when he finds Ban is now drinking a bottle of sake. He commands Ban to stop drinking as that would poison his precious blood.

Unknown to the vampire, who had been busy gorging himself to the size of a huge balloon, Ban all along has been stealing his power for himself. Revealing that poison doesn't work on him, Ban shreds the tentacles from his chest and delivers a crushing blow to the now-obese Vampire's stomach, destroying him.

Ban continues sucking power from those around him, including his allies Diane and King, who had since arrived and in their weakened state are now struggling against two royal vampire brothers, Modganne the dual sword and his younger brother Ganne, both belonging to the six powers sensed previously. Diane states that normally she'd have no problem, but weakened by Ban she can't fight back. Suddenly the brothers turn on each other, their minds controlled by someone else, and Ganne is killed. An injured Modganne is finished off by a third figure, shrouded in shadow with a Scythe. This new being throws off their disguise to reveal it had been Gowther all along, posing as an enemy in disguise. Gowther thought it best to wait and only intervene at the most exciting and dramatic moment, to the others' exasperation.

Merlin is nearby, walking around the battlefield to collect samples of the vampire bodies for her research. Ban is still supercharged from sucking everyone's power—as well as drunk from sake—and declares his wish to fight Merlin, saying he's never gotten to have a good match with her before. She agrees, but only if he does 100,000 push ups first. Ban eagerly jumps to the task, but when he's done immediately falls into an exhausted, drunken sleep. Merlin smiles over the expected result.

Meanwhile, Meliodas and Escanor have avoided the frontal assault and entered the castle through one of Merlin's gates (even though she said teleportation was not possible previously). Meliodas is disguised as a knight. Escanor talks sadly of his unrequited love for Merlin while they walk along the hallways, Escanor's huge axe in tow. Meliodas interrupts to tell them to stay focused and not lose each other. Of course, they lose sight of each other and become separated after this very line.

Meliodas runs into two female vampires, Ren and Gelda, two more of the six vampire powers sensed by Merlin. Ren begins right off the bat by announcing she knows exactly who Meliodas is, and that he's responsible for the seal on the Vampire clan in the past. She vengefully lunges at a confused Meliodas, who fends off her vicious blows while trying to insist he has no idea what she's talking about. Ren states she would never mistake his face again, and that his power had already given away his identity in spite of the visored helmet he was wearing as disguise. She confidently asserts that he didn't have the power to defeat them 3,000 years ago, which is why he resorted to sealing them instead, calling him demon Zeldris.

Suddenly, Ren is enveloped in deadly fire. With one final plea to Gelda why she would betray her, Ren disappears into ashes. Gelda steps forward and says she knows Meliodas is not Zeldris, claiming to know the captain's true identity. She merely asks for one favor, for Meliodas to kill her.

Meliodas recalls the demise of the vampire clan 3,000 years ago. The Vampire King Izraf rebelled against the demon clan, and in order to make an example of traitors, the Demon King ordered the clan's execution, sending Zeldris as the executioner. Zeldris however did not kill the clan but sealed them in, and Meliodas shrewdly deduces this woman must be the reason for Zeldris having stayed his hand. He tells her he understands her request.

During this time, Escanor has encountered the demon king Izraf himself, the sixth and strongest of the vampiric powers sensed by Merlin before the conflict. As it's shortly before dawn still, he runs in fear of his life while the demon king laughs at his impotence. However, time progresses even under the veil of the Vampire King's night-time spell, and eventually Escanor's personality shifts abruptly into his day-time persona. Taking the Vampire King aback with his sudden brash words, Escanor taunts the Vampire King for his now futile attacks. The Vampire King responds to the insolence by launching his most powerful attack as punishment. It deals no damage to Escanor, who counters by slicing the king's torso in two, vertically from neck to waist.

Because Vampires always regenerate unless dismembered or their heads destroyed, the king restores himself. At first he chuckles smugly over his survival, but he quickly notices a burning sensation that's remained behind. Supposedly, only the demon clan's fires of purgatory should be able to create a lingering flame on him. As the burning intensifies, the king becomes increasingly agitated over the nature of Escanor's power that's infiltrated his vampire magic.

Escanor seems utterly oblivious to the vampire king's distress, and instead begins reciting to himself a poem he was practicing for Merlin. The Vampire King, completely paranoid by now, shrieks at Escanor over what kind of incantation he had just muttered. Escanor is offended and inquires how the demon king could possibly dare refer to his poem as an incantation. Escanor becomes greatly displeased with the king, and approaches him.

Sensing Escanor's swelling aura from afar, Merlin describes his power, how it rises in the day to peak at noon, while it dips into a trough at midnight. She doesn't know whether it's a curse or a gift, but it is a power completely different from any found in the non-human clans. She remarks that his power is the source of all life, "Sunshine."

Izraf visibly wilts under a towering Escanor. Izraf's body has begun disintegrating as the flames from before continue to consume him. Escanor leans in and informs the king that he's changed his mind due the king's careless words about his poem: The king has in fact very much fouled his mood. Izraf screams for his life as the flames explosively accelerate and the rest of his body is annihilated into nothing.

Meliodas is shown having unleashed a great attack in front of him, leaving a deep hole in the ground where Gelda had stood. He notes that it was the first time in 3,000 years he had heard Zeldris's name, and wonders whether they'd ever cross swords again. He reflects as if speaking directly to Zeldris, telling him that he bets Zeldris is cursing him right now from within his seal, cursing his failure of an older brother.

Fights and Events

 * Zaratras vs. Doni
 * Ban vs. Holy Knights of Edinburgh/Vampires
 * Ban vs. Orlondi
 * Diane, King, & Gowther vs. Mod & Ganne
 * Escanor vs. Izraf
 * Meliodas vs. Gelda & Ren

Characters in order of appearance

 * Doni
 * Zaratras
 * Merlin
 * King
 * Meliodas
 * Ban
 * Dreyfus
 * Hendrickson
 * Elizabeth Liones
 * Veronica Liones
 * Izraf
 * Gelda
 * Ren
 * Orlondi
 * Mod
 * Ganne
 * Escanor
 * Diane
 * Gowther
 * Zeldris