Meliodas's expression remained frosty as he walked into the village. Erza suddenly covered her mouth as her eyes widened in shock at the countless bodies of councilmen and villagers that laid scattered around. Around them, blood was splattered on the walls of houses, and pools of it formed on the ground.
"What the hell happened here?!" Gajeel asked with a slight, yet noticeable panic in his voice. He had never seen anything so brutal in his life. Meliodas looked curiously at the bodies of villagers specifically. He noticed that they had no visible wounds.
"Their souls were taken…" Meliodas muttered as he stared in shock. He hadn't seen anything like this in the current world. 'Such a method exists… does that mean there are demons in this world as well?'
"Who...or what would do something like this?" Lily asked. Meliodas and the group remained silent as they walked slowly through the village. The place reeked of the scent of blood that got worse and worse the deeper they went. The group stopped as they noticed the corpses of councilmen on the ground, their white robes turned red. One of the corpses in particular caught Meliodas' eye. Meliodas paused as he looked at it.
"So all councilmen that were sent here were all slaughtered…" Erza commented. She noticed Meliodas staring at one particular corpse.
"Something caught your eye?" Erza asked.
"I think I know this one." Meliodas said, pointing to the corpse of a tall councilman with long brown hair. He thought back to the councilman he met briefly on his mission with Gray at the Bluegarden estate.
"Look at his robes. He looks like a Captain." Gajeel commented.
"So even a Captain within the council couldn't fight this off…" Lily added.
"Let's keep moving. We need to find out whoever did this and make sure this doesn't happen again." Meliodas said in a serious tone.
"And if we're lucky, we'll find survivors." Erza said.
The group continued walking through the village, reaching the center to what appeared to be the broken remains of a town hall. As the group stopped to look at the building, a deep, familiar voice came from behind them.
"So you've arrived, Fairy Tail."
The group turned around and saw the large man who had just greeted them.
"Jura?!" Erza exclaimed. Jura nodded as he looked at the group.
"Thank you for coming here so quickly. It's good to see you again, Meliodas and Erza."
"So this is the guy called Iron Rock Jura, of the Ten Wizard Saints…" Gajeel commented as he looked at him. He could feel a tremendous magical pressure from him, as expected of someone of the Ten Wizard Saints.
"He's certainly strong." Lily commented.
"Do you have any information as to who is behind this? We were told to come here on short notice and didn't receive a lot of information regarding the mission." Erza asked. Jura quickly briefed the group on the information he was given by the council.
"And the council doesn't know who it was exactly or how many. It doesn't help that those who were sent here to scout ahead of time were killed. We must explore the rest of the village and see if there are any clues left behind." Jura replied.
Erza nodded. They didn't have much of a choice. She followed behind Jura with Lily while Gajeel went back down the main road they came from. Erza noticed Meliodas squatting by one of the bodies of a councilman nearby.
"Meliodas… are you alright?" Erza asked, however Meliodas remained deep in thought as looked over the corpse.
"Perhaps he figured something out." Lily suggested. A few moments later Meliodas stood up and looked at the trio.
"Meliodas, did you figure something out?" Jura asked.
"There are at least two assailants." Meliodas replied.
"What? How do you know." Erza asked.
"Only the councilmen have visible wounds on their bodies. The other corpses of villagers didn't have those same wounds. Their bodies were completely fine. Instead, it looks like their souls were removed from their body. "
"Souls?!!...." Jura muttered.
"Yes. Look at the bodies of the villagers. They all look like they have been drained. I have seen things like this before." Meliodas said. He was familiar with this concept after all, considering the demon race ate human souls.
"So why do you suspect two? Couldn't it have been the same person that killed both the villagers and the councilmen?" Erza asked.
"The council members that died...they must have arrived after the souls of the villagers were taken. Their wounds are a lot fresher than the bodies whose souls are removed. My guess is another person may have finished them off to keep silent." Meliodas answered.
"What he says does make sense. And even if it were the same person who did this, it would best we be as cautious as if there were multiple involved." Jura added.
"So how are we going to track the culprits?" Lily asked. Meliodas looked around for any other clues, but noticed Gajeel was gone from the group.
"Where is Gajeel?" Meliodas asked.
"Hmm. He was just here." Erza responded as she looked around.
"Hey get over here! I think I found something!" Gajeel's voice called out from behind them, back at the main road. The group rushed over and saw Gajeel was standing next to the familiar councilman's body. Jura's eyes widened as he saw the councilman. He couldn't help but feel sad upon seeing Captain Frestes' lifeless body.
"So Captain Frestes has fallen…" Jura commented. "We drank together about a month ago after one of the large council meetings."
"Well I found this in his hand." Gajeel said. He showed the group a black piece of cloth that appeared to have been torn off of clothing.
"Good find. Whoever he was fighting, Captain Frestes must have managed to grab a hold of his clothing before he died." Jura said.
"And with my sense of smell, we'll find that bastard!" Gajeel said with a smirk. He put the piece of cloth up to his nose and took a large whiff. His eyes widened immediately and he began to look around.
"What's wrong?" Lily asked.
"The scent's pretty strong. That bastard is pretty close. Can't be more than a few kilometers that way." Gajeel said, pointing in the direction of the town hall.
"Then we'd better hurry up and move before we lose him." Jura said. "We'll follow after you Gajeel."
Gajeel nodded and quickly ran to the north side of town, leaving the town into the forest with the rest of the mages right behind him. A few moments passed as the group ran through the forest.
"How close are we?" Erza asked.
"Very close." Gajeel replied. The group ran a few more steps but immediately stopped as they felt an enormous magical presence nearby.
"What is this magical power?!" Lily exclaimed. He looked towards Jura and Meliodas. Meliodas had a serious expression on his face and Jura seemed a bit shaken by the power.
Runes on the ground began to glow as a massive, invisible wall rose up from behind them. The atmosphere of the area changed, with the sky turning dark as if it was night time. A large castle seemingly appeared out of nowhere in the distance as a thunderous noise crackled. Pantherlily immediately jumped up into Gajeel's arms at the loud noise.
"So you're afraid of thunder huh?" Gajeel said with a smirk. His smirk vanished quickly as the large magic he felt continued to grow.
"What is this place?" Erza questioned. Meliodas turned around and looked at the magical wall that had risen up behind them. He walked up to it and placed his hand on the wall. His hand immediately rebounded as a small shock jolted through his hand.
"Looks like they trapped us here with runes." Meliodas said.
"So they must have anticipated we would be coming." Jura commented.
"If they're going to trap us in here, that gives us all the more reason to reach that castle and defeat whoever is behind all of this." Erza said with a determined look on her face.
Suddenly more runes began to glow on the ground in front of them, which seemingly stretched out all the way to the castle. A shrill voice echoed throughout the area.
"You impudent worms won't be going anywhere, now that you've fallen in THE GREAT MAZE!"