Meliodas stared at the full moon above him as he sat atop a large tree in the middle of the village. As he stared at the moon, he thought about his friends in Tenrou and their unfortunate fates. 'I failed to protect everyone again…' Meliodas thought as he continued to stare silently at the clear night night sky.
Nearby he heard the sound of a branch cracking followed by footsteps. To his surprise, there was a cloaked figure holding a black, wooden violin in his hands.
"For you, I will play the tune of Debilis." The cloaked figure said.
As Meliodas jumped down from the tree, the mysterious man began playing the violin. A soothing melody played throughout the village. Meliodas could feel his senses starting to fade and he immediately leaped towards the man. The man jumped out of the way in time as he continued playing the violin. Meliodas' vision began to grow dark until it was pitch black. He couldn't hear anything, see anything, feel anything, smell anything, or taste anything. All he had were his own thoughts.
The man stopped playing the violin as Meliodas stood completely still right in front of him. The mysterious man laughed as he could hear the screams of the council members nearby, as they could not comprehend what was going on, having lost all of their senses.
The man took a few steps forward and reached out towards Meliodas. At that moment, something within Meliodas stirred, an all familiar feeling he had not felt since Purgatory. Purgatory, the land that ate away at both the flesh and soul. The land where your senses no longer mattered and you could only rely on your sixth sense as you tried to adapt before the land transformed your very being.
The cloaked man felt a sharp pain in his arm and his eyes opened wide as Meliodas grabbed his forearm. A loud cracking sound echoed through the village.
"AAGGGHH!" The man screamed in pain as he hunched over in pain, unable to escape from Meliodas' grip. Meliodas leaned forward and wound his fist back, sending a swift punch to the man's torso. Blood leaked out of the man's mouth as he heard the sound of his own ribs shatter and was sent flying into a nearby wooden house. The man slammed into the house, causing large planks and sticks to go flying and scatter across the ground.
At that moment, Meliodas began to regain his senses. His blacked out vision became clearer and clearer and he could hear the screams of the councilmen around him. Meliodas looked ahead of him and saw the man still firmly holding onto the violin despite falling unconscious as blood dripped from his mouth.
Meliodas could feel a dark magical presence begin to stir from the violin. It's shape began to morph into that of a towering beast, one that was over fifty meters tall. It's body appeared to be made entirely out of bone and six spikes appeared on its back, taking the appearance of bone wings. Its giant clawed feet stepped on the building beneath it where the cloaked man was, its sheer weight shattering the very ground. It opened its gaping mouth and a bright light was emitted as it began to charge a massive blast of magic at Meliodas.
'So that's Debilis…' Meliodas thought as he instinctively reached for his back but realized that he no longer had Mel Force with him. Meliodas looked around. On the ground next to him was a stick that fell near him when he launched the cloaked man into the wooden house. He picked up the stick and prepared himself as he took a stance.
Debilis fired the blast from its mouth, a blast that could have even surpassed the Jupiter cannon's firepower and wiped out the councilmen as they were still in no state to defend themselves as well as the entirety of Ska Village. Meliodas swung the branch in his hand just before the blast made contact with him.
"Full Counter!"
The beam redirected back at Debilis, shot upward and engulfing the demon's upper body in a massive explosion that made its way towards the mountain behind it. In that instant, the summit of the mountain exploded, causing large rocks to come falling down from the skies.
"Oops." Meliodas said as smaller bits of rock landed near him. A few particularly large rocks headed towards the town. With the councilmen in the current state they were in, they were unaware of the danger of being crushed.
Meliodas dropped the stick on the ground and raised his left arm up. A veil of darkness formed in the shape of a large blade as he leaped towards the oncoming rocks. Meliodas spun around in the air and dashed between the rocks heading towards the town. As he landed on the ground again, the boulders broke down into hundreds of smaller pieces that harmlessly bounced off the tops of the houses.
"Now then…" Meliodas said as he turned back around. "Looks like I have to wait for these guys to get their senses back."
---
A few hours passed and the councilmen stopped scrambling around as they regained their senses.
"You really fought that demon by yourself? How did you do it when all of your senses were gone?" Jura asked.
"I guess it's a sixth sense." Meliodas responded nonchalantly. "By the way, you recovered pretty quickly Jura. It only took you about five minutes after Debilis was destroyed to gain your senses back."
"I suppose it's based on one's magical power. Which would explain why you gained yours back in a matter of seconds." Jura responded.
He and Jura approached the corpse of the mage who was playing the instrument. When Debilis had grown to full size, it had crushed the mage in the process, leaving a splattered mess on the ground.
"Meliodas." Lahar said as he approached Meliodas from behind. "The council will clean the rest up from here. I have to thank you for your assistance with this threat."
"Of course!" Meliodas responded with a smile.
"But what brought you here with Jura?" Lahar asked. "I hadn't sent the request out for reinforcements yet."
"Oh that. Well I'm getting a new sword crafted and I need a material that can only be found on this mountain. It's called Neotite." Meliodas replied.
"Oh that material. I hear it's an incredibly durable yet hard to work with ore. The council attempted to mine it in the past but it was too difficult to forge properly into weapons. If I remember correctly, that material is found at the summit-" Lahar paused and his eyes opened wide as he was about to point to the top of the mountain.
"What...happened…" Lahar gasped. Jura remembered Meliodas' technique "Full Counter" and couldn't hide his amusement and a smile formed on his face. 'He must have used that technique and the blast hit the mountain as a result.'
"Well I'll be heading off now to get the material. Thanks for getting me here Jura! I owe you one!" Meliodas shouted as he scurried off to the mountain, leaving Lahar and Jura back in the village.
---
Later that morning as noon approached, Meliodas returned to Musica's forge. He handed Musica the Neotite and Musica began working on the new blade immediately.
"By the way, Meliodas!" Musica shouted as he hammered down loudly on the blade. "I finished the swords both Erza and Pantherlily requested. I want you to hold onto them...just in case. They're in my house mounted on the wall. You'll recognize them immediately."
Meliodas nodded and went into Musica's house. As he entered the door, he noticed the two swords mounted on the wall above the fireplace. Meliodas approached the swords. A tight feeling grasped his chest and Meliodas clenched his fists.
'They've already sent search parties out to find them...But that island had something special about it. I could feel it as soon as I stepped on it...so maybe they are alive…somehow...'
Meliodas took a closer look at the swords. The one mounted at the bottom was for Lily. It was a small, shrunken down greatsword, but Meliodas knew it would grow along with Lily's size. It was double edged with a wide flat blade that was white on the edges.
Mounted above that was another sword, Erza's. Its appearance was similar to that of Benizakura, except the blade was a lighter color with Musica's signature music note symbol engraved near the handle. Meliodas grabbed the swords from the wall mounts, placing them directly into his requip inventory before stepping outside to see Musica again.
"What did you think of the swords? I tried a new method of making them and they turned out better than I expected. I dare say they're even better than the Mel Force I gave you, although probably not better than this new one I'm making for you." Musica remarked as he noticed Meliodas approaching.
"They're really nice. Did you name them?" Meliodas asked.
"Of course! The one for Pantherlily I called "Ethernal." A blade fitting of his stature as it can change its size according to the user's whims. The other for Erza is called "Entenka." There's a secret behind that sword that I was hoping she would figure out one day." Musica answered. Meliodas became noticeably saddened, thinking about the two of them again as well as the rest of the guild on Tenrou. Musica stopped what he was doing and placed a hand on Meliodas' shoulder.
"Do you have faith in your friends?" Musica asked. Meliodas looked down at the ground, not only thinking about them, but also the Seven Deadly Sins. He had faith that the Seven Deadly Sins made it out of their battle with Cath without him. 'Maybe...Fairy Tail could have made it out of it with Acnologia…'
"I do." Meliodas said resolutely. "I'll keep moving forward so that they have a place to come back to."
"Alright then. In the meantime, I'll be spending the next few days working on this blade of yours. Why don't you come back later to pick it up." Musica suggested.