The following day, Meliodas and Mystogan had taken a train north of Rose Garden, reaching Clover Town as Mystogan needed to replenish his supplies.
"Clover Town... I was here recently. They got some good ale here." Meliodas commented as the two of them walked through the streets. While Mystogan stopped at a magical wares shop, Meliodas looked around and saw several flyers that caught his eye outside. One of them read, "Come to Magnolia Town's Harvest Festival, Hosted by Fairy Tail! October 15."
As Meliodas read the flyers, Mystogan walked out of the store. Meliodas approached him with one of the flyers and showed it to him.
"You plan on going to this?" Meliodas asked.
"Perhaps." Mystogan said. "But I have one more mission to do here."
"And what would that be?" Meliodas asked. Mystogan pulled out a flyer from his robe with a mission from the council. Meliodas looked at the mission.
"So we're stopping the same dark guild...they're called Ghost Pumpkin? How spread out are these guys?"
"I'm not sure. But their reach spreads far and wide throughout Fiore. These are just branches of the main guild. In a sense, they are a growing fourth branch of the Balam Alliance but aren't large enough to be considered one, so the council has been focusing on stopping their growth before it's too late." Mystogan answered.
"Balam Alliance?" Meliodas questioned.
"The name of the three ruling dark guilds in Fiore. But at the rate this current guild is growing at, there might soon be four…"
"Alright well let's go stop these guys." Meliodas said with a grin. Mystogan nodded and gestured for Meliodas to follow him. The two of them walked through town until arriving at the western outskirts. Sitting on a rocky hill, was a lone, run down wooden shack with a couple of rugged looking men standing outside of it wearing sleeveless tops. On their arms, were the matching guild marks of a black pumpkin.
"I will put them to sleep with my magic, then we will go inside." Mystogan said as he placed one of his staves on the ground. The stave began to glow and the two men standing at the top of the hill suddenly collapsed.
"That's pretty handy." Meliodas commented as the two of them walked up to the shack past the two men. The two of them entered, and to their surprise, it was empty except for a couple of chairs and a table. As the duo began walking around inside looking for clues, Meliodas stared curiously at the floor.
"Did you find something?" Mystogan asked. Without another word, Meliodas drew out Mel Force and unleashed a quick flurry of slashes towards the ground. The floor gave way, revealing a hidden staircase leading into a dark basement.
Mystogan drew out one of his staves, creating a light source from it as he walked down first, with Meliodas following right after him. The stairway seemed endless, as they continued walking down for several minutes until they reached an iron door. Mystogan tried to open the door, but it was locked.
"Leave it to me." Meliodas smiled. He wound his fist back before punching the door, launching the door off of its hinges and leaving a massive dent in it as it fell to the ground in front of them.
Mystogan and Meliodas walked inside. The room looked like a secret underground tavern. It was a dimly lit room, lit only by several lacrima in the corners of the room. Across from the door Meliodas forced his way through, there was a bar with a lone bartender who was polishing a glass. On his hand, was the mark of a black pumpkin. There were several men playing cards with each other at a table in the corner, all with matching black pumpkin guild marks on their shoulders while more men were sitting at the other corner drinking. All of them immediately stopped what they were doing as they looked at the young blond child who had barged in.
"I will deal with them. Find out what's in the next room." Mystogan said, pointing to another door across the room. Meliodas nodded and walked towards the door as Mystogan casted his sleep magic. Before any of them had a chance to react, they all collapsed on the ground.
Meliodas approached the door to the next room. It looked like the iron door he had broken earlier but there were strange markings on it. Meliodas tried punching through like the last one, but to his surprise, his fist bounced off of the door. A veil of magic where Meliodas had punched was now visible.
"Something wrong?" Mystogan said as he approached Meliodas. Behind him, were several sleeping bodies of the dark guild members that were tied up on the ground.
"Yeah. This door is protected by magic." Meliodas said. Looking closer at the door's seal, he realized it was very similar to the one that Joe Bluegarden had used to guard his treasures.
"I may be able to dispel it. But it will take some time, considering the strength of this seal. I'll need you to watch the entrance in case more of these guys show up. I can't fight them off while breaking the seal on this door." Mystogan said. He placed one of his staves down in front of the door. The stave began to glow.
Meliodas scratched his head as he continued to stare at the door. Suddenly, an idea entered his mind. He turned back around and looked at all of the unconscious guild members on the ground. Meliodas walked up to them and began searching through the pockets of each one individually.
"Oh this is it." Meliodas commented as he pulled out a remote like device from the pocket of the bartender. Meliodas walked back to Mystogan who was trying to dispel the magic seal.
"I think this is it." Meliodas showed Mystogan the remote and pressed the button on it, causing the door's seal to deactivate and the door to swing wide open.
"How did you know it was remotely controlled?" Mystogan asked, putting away his stave again.
"This guy who I did a job for, Joe Bluegarden, had a similar seal on his treasure door. It could only be opened through a remote." Meliodas answered.
"Joe Bluegarden...a man that powerful who may have connections to a dark guild…" Mystogan murmured to himself.
"What was that?" Meliodas asked.
"Nothing. Let's go inside." Mystogan said. Meliodas nodded back and the two of them walked into the originally sealed room. As they walked in, the stench of rotting corpses filled the air. Mystogan created a light with his stave, illuminating the room.
The stone floors and walls of the room were surprisingly clean, with no traces of blood. There were several old corpses on the ground near where they were standing. In the center of the room, was a strange pedestal but nothing on it. Meliodas looked at the pedestal. There was something familiar about it but he couldn't figure out what.
"These bodies...there are no visible injuries on them. It's as if they just...died." Mystogan said, bending over and analyzing the corpses while Meliodas took a look at the pedestal.
"You know I think I recognize this from somewhere." Meliodas said, looking at the top of it. "There was something like this back at a mission I did with Lamia Scale. Except the one I encountered had an orb on top of it."
Mystogan stood up and turned to face Meliodas with a grim expression on his face. Despite Mystogan wearing a mask, Meliodas could tell from looking into his eyes.
"This guild is somehow using the souls and magic of people." Mystogan said. "But what for…"
Meliodas looked around the rest of the room but found nothing else interesting. The two of them walked back up to ground level as Mystogan informed the council of the mission through a communication lacrima.
Half an hour later, the white carriages of dozens of councilmen swarmed the shack. Mystogan and Meliodas watched as a hoard of councilmen went into the small shack and came out with the tied up dark guild members. A councilman approached Mystogan and paid him for the mission before leaving with the rest of the councilmen.
"Meliodas, I appreciate the help you've given me on these missions." Mystogan said. "Thank you."
"Not a problem. Although with your strength, you probably didn't need me." Meliodas replied.
"Regardless, I told you I would tell you what I know if you helped me." Mystogan said as he began unwrapping his mask and removing his head covering, to Meliodas's surprise. Underneath his mask, Mystogan was a blue haired young man with a strange red tattoo on the right side of his face.
"You know...you look familiar. I think I've seen your face somewhere before…" Meliodas said out loud as he looked at Mystogan's face. "Oh! I remember now. I was reading sorcerer's magazine."
"No. That was this world's version of me. I come from another world, one parallel to this one, known as Edolas. It is one parallel to Earthland here. You said you also came from another world, but based on what I've seen of you, you do not come from Edolas."
"Parallel worlds huh...that's pretty neat but a bit disheartening...unless Britannia is somehow a parallel to this one." Meliodas replied.
"Parallel worlds have doppelgangers of each other. If your Britannia didn't have anyone who looked like us here, then it is not from a parallel world."
"This parallel world stuff...this wouldn't happen to have to do with you yelling "ANIMA" out loud earlier would it?" Meliodas questioned.
"Anima is the name of a magic that drains the magic in this world and transfers it to Edolas." Mystogan answered.
"Oh so you got here by using some sort of reverse Anima and now you go around trying to stop them from appearing?" Meliodas asked. Mystogan nodded as he began wrapping his face up again.
"Well I'm sure you got your reasons for doing so and I won't go any deeper. This Anima thing is the closest I've heard to a dimensional portal to bring me back. But I appreciate the information. It gives me a bit of hope that there really is a way for me to return." Meliodas said.
"If I may ask, how did you get here?" Mystogan asked. Meliodas pondered for a moment, thinking about how to explain before answering.
"Long story short, I was fighting a monster cat that ripped a hole through space, creating a rift that sent me here using chaos." Meliodas answered nonchalantly.
"Chaos?" Mystogan asked.
"Yeah, I don't quite understand the concept myself. But here I am thanks to it." Meliodas replied. Mystogan nodded in response.
"Meliodas, if you could, I ask that you keep our conversation a secret. It would be devastating to the guild if they found out my identity." Mystogan said.
"Sure." Meliodas said.
"But what will you do now? I will most likely start heading back to Fairy Tail for the festival and stop any Animas from appearing on the way." Mystogan said.
"Hmm...well I'm still a bit interested in the whole Anima thing. You mind if I come along?"
"No I don't mind. Your strength is useful. Do you use some sort of physical enhancement magic?" Mystogan asked.
"Nope." Meliodas replied. Mystogan's eyes widened. 'He's already this powerful without using magic...not to mention his swordsmanship is first rate...he could possibly stop- No...I shouldn't involve him in this any further…'