December 15, X784
Meliodas and Lily arrived at Hargeon Port. Meliodas looked around and saw the other participants lined up.
"Yo!" Meliodas greeted. He looked around at the rest of the dock. "The Master is not here yet?"
"I hope he arrives soon." Lucy commented. "This waiting around is making me even more nervous."
Meliodas noticed Cana standing next to Lucy and staring off at the ocean. Cana looked more serious than her normal self. Meliodas requipped a bottle of white wyvern ale into his hand and approached Cana with the drink in hand.
"How about a drink?" Meliodas offered in an amicable tone. Cana looked back at Meliodas coldly.
"Not now." Cana said before turning and walking away. Meliodas looked at her with a puzzled expression, surprised at someone like Cana turning away a drink.
"I wonder what's wrong." Meliodas commented to himself. "Did she not like this kind of ale?"
"Perhaps the nerves of this trial are getting to her." Lily suggested. Lucy looked at both Meliodas and Lily and sighed as she couldn't tell them the real reason behind Cana's attitude.
"Meliodas! Fight me!" Natsu shouted as he ran towards Meliodas. Meliodas turned around and saw the dragon slayer running towards him.
"We haven't even started the trial yet, Natsu!" Lucy exclaimed. Suddenly a large hand grabbed Natsu, keeping him still and placing him back on the ground away from Meliodas.
"Oh good, the Master's here!" Levy commented.
"Natsu there will be plenty of time for fighting once we get to the island." Makarov said, causing Natsu's eyes to light up with excitement. Makarov walked towards the boat and jumped up on one of the wooden guard rails at the side. The rest of the participants gathered around and looked up at Makarov.
"As you all know, today is the beginning of the S Class Mage Promotion Trials." Makarov said. "There isn't much to brief about the rules yet, but don't fight on the boat and please stay on it. I'll explain more as we get closer. There's a board on the ship that explains a few more safety rules so read up on that. That is all for now."
The group boarded the boat and spread themselves out amongst the top deck. Meliodas wandered around the top deck as Lily went to go find Gajeel. As the boat began to set sail, he noticed Natsu already hanging over the side. He walked over to Natsu and patted him on the back.
"Natsu hang in there! We haven't even set sail yet!" Happy exclaimed.
"Ughh...where's Wendy…" Natsu mumbled. Meliodas walked away from the two of them and looked towards the bow of the deck. He walked up to Gray and a young man with spiky orange hair who were also relaxing there.
"Hey what's up Meliodas." Gray greeted.
"Yo!" Meliodas greeted back with a small wave. He looked over to the orange haired man. "I don't think we've met. I'm Meliodas."
"I'm Loke. I've seen you around a bit." Loke greeted.
"Speaking of people I don't remember seeing." Meliodas said as he pointed to a lean built man with short black hair, emerald turquoise eyes, and thin eyebrows. He had three distinct scars on his face and wore a pinstriped jacket with an alternating red and orange pattern. The man noticed Meliodas pointing towards him and immediately looked away.
"I feel like he's been watching me this entire time." Meliodas said.
"Oh that's Mest. He's uhh…" Gray scratched his head as he tried to remember something about Mest. "I don't know much about him but he's in the guild I guess."
"I can't seem to remember much about him either…" Loke mentioned. "Perhaps he sees you as a threat in this trial and he's trying to size you up. From what I've heard, you're quite strong."
"But that doesn't mean we'll lose to you." Gray said with a grin. Meliodas smiled back at the two of them but couldn't shake off a suspicious feeling about Mest.
"Speaking of forgetting things, where did your clothes go Gray?" Meliodas asked, pointing to Gray's nearly nude body, as he was only wearing his underwear.
"Dammit!" Gray yelled as he picked up the clothes he had unconsciously stripped on the floor around him.
"I could have sworn you had clothes on at the start of this conversation." Loke commented.
---
A few hours passed since the boat set sail. Meliodas sat down at a table on the main deck, next to Gajeel and Lily. The weather on the boat was particularly hot, causing most people on board to be very uncomfortable. Meliodas glanced at Gajeel and saw that he was starting to sweat.
"Why is it so hot!" Lucy exclaimed as she leaned back in her chair. As she leaned back, she noticed Meliodas relaxing while drinking from a mug of ale.
"How are you not bothered by this weather?" Lucy asked. Meliodas shrugged his shoulders in response.
"Nothing like a glass of cold ale to cool me off I guess." Meliodas responded.
"Okay...but you're not even sweating...like at all!" Lucy exclaimed.
"Hey I can see the island!" Loke shouted. Meliodas turned his attention to the front of the boat and got up from his seat. He walked up next to Loke to see what he was pointing out. There he saw a lone island in the middle of the ocean. It was covered in lush vegetation and had large rock formations jutting out. In the middle of the island, was an enormous tree that appeared to hold up another smaller island above it.
"Woah, so that's Tenrou Island." Gray commented.
"It's an island on an island?!" Lucy exclaimed in surprise.
"That island looks MANLY!" Elfman yelled.
"It is said that fairies used to live on this island." Makarov added in from behind them. Everyone immediately turned to face Makarov, who was standing above them on a wooden rail at the center of the ship.
'Fairies?' Meliodas thought as an image of King popped into his head. 'I haven't ran into any here yet. I wonder what fairies look like in this world.'
"And Fairy Tail's first master Mavis Vermillion sleeps there." Makarov continued. "But now I will now announce the details of the first exam. Everyone look toward the beach." Makarov said as he pointed at the island. The Fairy Tail mages immediately turned around and looked at the island. There they saw a small trail of smoke coming from the beach.
"See that smoke? Head there first. There are nine paths there. Only one group can enter each path. And here's what waits for you behind each path." Makarov gestured with his hand and a magical interface appeared next to him. The interface showed a map of the paths and where they lead. Makarov explained the paths to the participants as they looked at the diagram. There were nine paths in total, with paths 1, 4, and 9 leading to a "Hard Battle" with an S class mage. Paths 2 and 3, 5 and 6, 7 and 8 were paths that lead towards a battle between the two paths.
"Your goals in this first exam are "Power" and "Luck." Makarov finished.
"Luck?!" Several of the guild members shouted in disbelief. Meliodas stared at the board as he finished drinking from his mug of ale. Lily approached him and stood next to him.
"Do you have a particular path in mind you plan on going through?" Lily asked.
"Hmm…" Meliodas looked intently at the diagram. "Fighting the S class mages would be fun. I've seen what Erza is capable of and she's impressive. Also, I've never seen Mira in battle."
"I hear that your nickname is "The Blond Demon" and Mira's is "The Demon." Lily commented. "It would be interesting to see you two fight."
"I think the biggest challenge would be Gildarts." Meliodas added.
"I don't know much about Gildarts, but from what I've heard around the guild in the short time I've been here, there's a lot of debate as to whether you or him are stronger." Lily said.
"I'm not sure about that, but I don't think that matters too much. This is the S class trial after all. Raw power alone isn't the only prerequisite to pass this. I need "luck" too." Meliodas said with a grin.
"I suppose you're right." Lily replied with a smile back.
"THE EXAM STARTS NOW!" Makarov shouted.
"But... we're still in the ocean?" Gray questioned.
"Let's go Happy!" Natsu shouted confidently. He jumped up high into the air with a large grin on his face as Happy picked him up.
"Aye sir!" Happy shouted. Lily watched Natsu and Happy take off and immediately jumped up with his wings spread.
"Meliodas we should-"
Meliodas shook his head and pointed at the edge of the ship. Lily's eyes widened as he looked to where Meliodas was pointing. There he saw runes written on the wood that surrounded the entire ship. He looked back up in the sky and saw Natsu and Happy slam into a seemingly invisible wall as runes began to rise up the walls.
"How long have those been there?!" Lily questioned.
"Since the ship set sail." Meliodas replied nonchalantly, much to Lily's surprise. In the distance, Meliodas could see Freed and Bickslow already flying towards the island.
"Don't worry, it will disappear in five minutes!" Freed shouted back towards the ship. As the other members on board expressed their displeasure, Meliodas began to walk to the lower deck.
"Where are you off to?" Lily asked.
"Well if we're gonna be stuck here for five minutes, then there's nothing I can do about it. I'm gonna go get another mug of ale." Meliodas replied with a cheeky smile. Lily shook his head but couldn't help smiling at Meliodas' attitude.
"That's just like you." Lily commented.
Exactly five minutes passed as Meliodas returned to the top of the deck. He looked around and saw several members were already gone.
"While you were gone, it looks like both Evergreen and Levy were able to rewrite the rune scripts and leave on their own." Lily commented.
"Let's go Happy!" Natsu shouted as he and Happy jumped into the air.
"They got the right idea, let's go!" Lily said as he jumped up into the air. Meliodas followed suit and wings of darkness sprouted from his back. To Lily's surprise, Meliodas grabbed onto him before taking off, rapidly and passing by both Natsu and Happy.
"What the hell?!" Natsu yelled as Meliodas grinned at the two of them while flying by.
"Happy go faster!"
"Aye Sir!"
---
In no time at all, Meliodas and Lily arrived on the island. As they landed on the island, Meliodas' eyes widened. He could feel the island overflowing with vast magical power. He looked ahead at the paths. The paths were separated into caves in the cliffside. Several of the paths were already closed off, indicating a team had gone into them.
"Which one should we take?" Lily asked.
"Well we don't know where they lead. Let's just pick that one and go." Meliodas said as he pointed to one of the paths. Lily nodded and the two of them ran into the cave path.
Meliodas and Lily walked through the cave path. The cave path was fairly spacious and dimly lit by glowing bugs. They continued walking for several minutes, with the cave path growing wider and wider until it opened up into a massive clearing. Standing in the middle of the clearing, was a young woman with red hair.
"Yo Erza!" Meliodas greeted. A smile formed on Erza's face as Meliodas and Lily approached them.
"So you're the one I'm fighting then. I'm glad..." Erza said. The armor around her body began glowing before vanishing, instead being replaced by a white sarashi around her chest and a red hakama with a gold flame pattern. In her hand was what appeared to be a katana. She raised the katana and pointed it at Meliodas.
"Because if it were anyone else, I wouldn't be able to go all out. Now get ready, Meliodas!"