"How long have we been walking?" Lily questioned.
"Not sure. Probably a few hours. I sort of lost track of time." Meliodas replied. The two of them continued walking when suddenly, a massive beast rose from the bushes next to them. Lily got into a defensive stance but Meliodas remained indifferent. The beast towered over the two of them, standing nearly as tall as the trees. It took the appearance of something between a lion and a wolf and stood bipedal. It glared at both Meliodas and Lily.
"Hey you wouldn't happen to know where the grave of Mavis Vermillion is right?" Meliodas asked.
"You're expecting this beast to answer?!" Lily questioned.
"Well you're a talking cat." Meliodas retorted.
"I-I guess." Lily said, accepting Meliodas' logic. The beast took a step forward towards Meliodas and Lily, prompting them to focus their attention on it again.
"No. I don't know." The beast said before turning around and walking away.
"Was it really that simple?" Lily questioned.
"Huh...that's a shame. I guess we'll have to-" Meliodas froze mid sentence as he felt a strange magic, somewhere far away from them on the island. A distressed look formed on Meliodas' face as his eyes widened.
"What's wrong?!" Lily asked as it was generally rare for Meliodas to show any sign of visible distress. Meliodas regained his composure quickly and looked in the direction from where it came from.
"Lily let's go!" Meliodas shouted as he ran into the forest.
"Wait up!" Lily replied as he flew after Meliodas.
---
Meliodas ran through the dense forests of Tenrou hastily with Lily flying right behind him. The magic he felt was very brief, but he had a general idea of where it was coming from. Meliodas ran through several thick bushes, suddenly colliding with a mage.
"Gahhh!" Natsu shouted as he fell to the ground.
"Meliodas?!" Happy exclaimed.
"What the-" Natsu looked up and saw it was Meliodas who had run into him. Natsu jumped up from the ground as Meliodas stared at him.
"Watch where you're going!" Natsu shouted. Meliodas remained silent as he stared at Natsu's scarf. For reasons unknown to Meliodas, the scarf was now black in color. Meliodas could feel an aura similar to the one he felt earlier that was being emitted from the scarf.
"There you are Meliodas! I thought I lost you!" Lily said as he flew in from the bushes.
"And Lily's here too!" Happy added.
"What happened to your scarf?" Meliodas asked in a serious tone as he stared at it.
"Me, Elfman, and Evergreen just ran into this weird dude wearing black robes. He started crying or some crap and then let out this weird magic. And that damn magic turned my scarf black. This color doesn't work with my clothes at all!" Natsu answered angrily.
"That mage's magic...it caused all of the trees in the area to wither away…" Happy explained.
"Some kind of death magic?" Meliodas questioned as he considered staring at the scarf.
"A magic like that sounds awfully dangerous. I don't think Makarov would have allowed it as part of the S class trial." Lily added.
"I don't give a damn about all of that! I'm still gonna become an S-" Natsu stopped talking as everyone looked up in the sky. He looked up and saw a red flare shoot into the air.
"Enemies?!" Happy questioned. "Could it be that guy we ran into?"
"Hell if I know, but it looks like whoever is trying to mess with us is looking for an ass beating!" Natsu grinned as he cracked his knuckles.
"I'm all fired up!" Natsu yelled as he ran into the forest.
"Aye sir!" Happy shouted as he flew after Natsu. Lily looked up at Meliodas and saw he was still staring into the distance.
"What should we do?" Lily asked.
"Go with Natsu and Happy." Meliodas said.
"And what about you?" Lily asked.
"I'm going to find the source of that magic I felt earlier."
Meliodas ran through the forest, towards the area of the island where he last sensed the strange magic coming from. Upon arriving in the area Meliodas paused at what he saw. The grass, trees, and bushes were all dead, rotting and shriveled away. There was not a creature or bug in sight. The area was completely devoid of life. Meliodas thought back to Nirvana's effect on the trees but something about this was far more sinister.
Meliodas ran deeper into the dead forest but stopped as he felt a large magical presence very familiar to him. He turned his head towards where he felt it coming from. 'That magic...it's just like-' Meliodas had felt this magic before. Laxus had attempted to cast this on him previously but failed as Meliodas had interrupted it.
'It's Fairy Law!'
Meliodas suddenly felt the magic vanish, as if the user had decided to stop casting it. He pondered for a moment, as to what would even prompt that to happen and looked up into the sky.
As he looked into the sky, he saw a figure hovering in the distance, dropping strange orbs. Meliodas squinted his eyes and could see inside each orb, was a person. 'Well, it looks like we're being invaded.' Meliodas looked back towards the dead trees. 'I don't know if whoever did this is related to this invasion, but I have to go help my friends first.'
Meliodas ran hastily towards where the orbs filled with people were being dropped. He stopped in his tracks as he ran into a dozen of these people standing in the forest. One of them noticed Meliodas.
"Hey it looks like we found one of those damn Fairy Tail mages!" One of the mages said.
"Looks like he's alone." Another one commented. "Let's-"
Without even blinking, Meliodas seemingly vanished from their sight, reappearing behind the group with Mel Force in his hand out in front of him.
[Lightning Sword Flash]
In that instant, blood gushed out from the dozen mages who were standing there. Simultaneously, each of them fell to the ground, without being able to comprehend what had just happened. Meliodas sheathed his sword and continued running into the forest.
Meliodas ran through the forest for several minutes, cutting through many of the invaders that got in his way in the process without losing momentum as he kept running. Suddenly, the ground beneath him shook, causing Meliodas to nearly stumble. He regained his balance and stopped as he felt the magical presence of what caused the ground to shake.
'What was that?' Meliodas thought. He looked in the direction of where it came from and saw several dozen more of the invaders rushing towards him. Meliodas put his hand on the handle of his blade and gripped it tightly. With a fierce look in his eyes, he charged straight into the invaders.
Blood splattered on the ground around them, as Meliodas cut through over a dozen of them in an instant. Meliodas looked in front of him at the several mages charging magical attacks of varying elements in their hands.
"Gale Force!"
"Flame Bullet!"
"Earth's Vengeance!"
"Dark Buster!"
"Charge Shot!"
The mages fired their blasts at Meliodas simultaneously. Much to their surprise, Meliodas ran towards the blast with his sword drawn and swung his blade.
"Full Counter!"
The mages watched in horror as their attacks came back straight at them, creating an enormous, towering explosion of various magical powers that engulfed them and their allies. As the smoke from the explosion cleared, the mages were all lying face down on the ground, the forest area rendered completely flat as Meliodas ran by them, sheathing his sword again.
---
"Oh I see, so you're known as "The Demon Mirajane." A man said as he stood in front of both Mirajane and Lisanna, who were both on the ground. The man was tall and muscular with tan skin and thick brown hair that jutted upward and a brown goatee. He wore a tribal-like outfit, with a green chest piece and orange pants.
"I would like to request a serious match against "The Demon." The man continued. Mirajane remained quiet as the man approached them.
"What's wrong? You can't get serious against me? If that is the case…" The man pointed a finger towards Lisanna. Thick tree-like roots rose out of the ground, ensnaring Lisanna. In front of the roots, was a magical interface with a timer starting from 180. As each second went by, the timer went down a number.
Mirajane rushed to the roots that were ensnaring Lisanna. She grabbed onto the roots and attempted to break Lisanna free as she tried to tear away at them.
"No need to be so hasty. If you continue to touch the roots like that, Lisanna will surely perish. If you want those roots to come out safely, you'll have to defeat me...within three minutes that is." The man commented.
"You coward!" Mirajane shouted as she turned and faced the man.
"I will do anything to fight "The Demon." The man replied. He walked closer to the two sisters, prompting Mirajane to begin channeling her magic. Both the man and Mirajane stopped as a figure landed in between the two of them. The man's eyebrows raised as he looked at the figure standing before him.
"Hmm? You're-"
"You shouldn't be going around picking fights with demons."