Jellal froze at Meliodas' statement. 'The council sent Meliodas to get me?' Jellal stared silently at Meliodas. He had seen what he was capable of when he had fought Zero, but now, Meliodas seemed like a completely different person. Even suppressed, he could tell Meliodas was drastically stronger.
"Are you going to capture me then?" Jellal asked.
"Well, that depends on your answer. But first, I do have a couple of questions for you." Meliodas responded. Jellal remained silent, prompting Meliodas to continue with his questions.
"How did you even break out of there?" Meliodas asked.
"I-"
"I broke him out." Ultear interrupted as she and Meredy ran into the room. The two of them stood in front of Jellal. "He didn't break out of his own accord."
"Hey that's...Meliodas!" Meredy exclaimed.
"Well, that's surprising. I didn't expect to see you all here." Meliodas commented. He looked at the three people standing in front of him. They were all wearing matching dark blue cloaks.
"Oh Meredy! You got taller since the last time I saw you." Meliodas noted.
"Y-yeah. It's been a year after all." Meredy responded.
"Meliodas, I know you have a mission to capture Jellal, but I ask you to let us be. We have our own reasons for doing this right now…" Ultear said. 'Should I tell Meliodas about Crime Sorciere? No...I don't need to involve him in this.'
"Hmm…I do owe you for saving me out in the ocean. And Jellal did stop Nirvana." Meliodas responded. "I won't say anything about this meeting but I do have a question for you Ultear."
"What's your question?" Ultear asked.
"Do you have any information on spatial magic that can travel between worlds?" Meliodas asked. Ultear raised an eyebrow at the question. 'What an oddly specific question. Why that kind of spatial magic in particular?'
"I don't know of any sort." Ultear responded.
"Neither do I." Jellal added.
"What about Selene, The Dragon God?" Meliodas continued. Ultear and Jellal shook their heads.
"Okay then. I'll be on my way. You guys should probably leave here soon. I'm informing the council on the way out that I defeated the dark guild." Meliodas said nonchalantly. He looked at the group one more time and gave them a small wave with a cheeky smile before exiting the room. The three of them stood in the room, unmoving as they tried to comprehend the situation that just happened.
---
March 3rd, X786
"Yo, Macao!" Meliodas shouted as he waved a flyer at Macao from across the hall. "I'm taking another mission!"
"Okay Meliodas! But could you at least call me Mast-" Macao sighed as Meliodas had already run out of the guild hall.
Before leaving Magnolia Town, Meliodas stopped by where his old house used to be with Schneider. The house which was destroyed previously had been rebuilt and a new family already lived inside. 'Still nothing from the council about that Assassin guild. Not only that, but ever since Schneider died, they stopped trying to attack me. I still shouldn't let my guard down though…'
Meliodas stood outside for a few minutes, staring at the house before he looked down at the job flyer he had grabbed.
[Subdue the Dark Guild: Spectre. Reward: 15,000,000 Jewels]
'Looks like they're north of Clover Town. I'm not in the mood to take the train today so I'll just fly.'
The flyer began to glow briefly before vanishing into Meliodas' requip inventory. Meliodas looked up at the clear blue sky. Black wings of darkness sprouted from his back and he leaped up into the air, flying north.
---
Meliodas arrived at the location of the Spectre guild and stood just outside of the guild's building. The building was a large abandoned mansion made of bricks. The mansion was two stories high with many broken windows filled with wooden boards. At the entryway there were two unconscious men and the door was kicked down.
'Someone is already here?' Meliodas thought as he walked inside. He walked down the main hall, the floor covered in over a dozen unconscious bodies. In front of him was a grand stairway and three familiar figures were walking up the stairs.
"Well now." Meliodas commented, grabbing their attention. The three figures immediately turned around with surprised looks on their faces.
"We should really stop meeting up like this." Meliodas said lightheartedly.
"What brings you here, Meliodas?" Ultear questioned.
"I'm just on another dark guild mission." Meliodas replied.
"How often do you do these missions?" Jellal asked.
"Every day." Meliodas responded. Jellal and Ultear both looked at each other then back at Meliodas.
"So you're the reason why there has been a significant drop in dark guilds in the area." Ultear inquired.
"Well this can't be a coincidence we're meeting like this again. What brings you guys here?" Meliodas asked.
"Do we tell him?" Meredy asked as she looked over at Ultear.
"It's no use hiding it from Meliodas." Jellal stated. "We're an independent guild, Crime Sorciere. Our primary objective is to hunt down dark guilds. But our true goal...is to defeat Zeref."
"An independent guild...well that does make sense considering who you guys are." Meliodas remarked.
"Meliodas, is the reason you're taking all of these dark guild subdual missions to research a certain type of spatial magic?" Ultear asked.
"It is." Meliodas replied. "I've run into a bunch of different documents on magic over the past year, but none of them applied to my situation."
"Then we may share a common goal." Ultear continued. "We can talk about this more after we defeat the guild master who should be upstairs. Care to join us?"
"Sure." Meliodas responded. The four of them walked up to the next floor of the mansion. As they walked around the corner, they were greeted by over a dozen dark guild members spread out through the large corridor.
"Isn't that Jellal?" One of the dark guild members commented with noticeable shock in his voice.
"That is Jellal...those other two women with him...I feel like I've seen them before as well…" Another commented.
"And that blond kid behind them that's…"
"THE BLOND DEMON?!" Several dark guild members shouted in unison.
"Wow Meliodas! You're really well known among dark guilds now." Meredy commented.
"Let's take them out." Jellal said as he jumped into the air. He raised his left palm out in front of him and his right one behind him. Suddenly, nine swords of light formed in a fan array behind him.
"Jiu Leixing!"
The nine swords behind Jellal launched out towards the closest dark guild members. The large hallway filled with smoke from the explosions, with several more dark guild members running in at the group. With a green orb in hand, Ultear threw it forward at the dark guild members.
"Parallel Worlds!"
The green orb suddenly split into dozens of similar orbs, floating in between Ultear and the Spectre members. Ultear made a motion with her right arm, causing the orbs to launch forward.
"Agghhh!!" The dark guild members yelled as they were bombarded by dozens of orbs.
The smoke in the hallway began to clear. The bodies of the dark guild members were scattered across the floor.
The group continued walking down the hallway, with no opposition in their way. Eventually, they reached a lone door at the end of the hallway. Jellal opened the door and walked in first, with the others right behind him.
The door opened to a large room. Sitting on a throne-like chair was a middle aged man wearing a black hooded cloak. He had three black markings running down the left side of his face and held a scythe in his left hand.
Standing on his left was a tall black haired woman. She had three horizontal black markings that went across her eyes and the bridge of her nose. She wore a similar black cape and had an ebony greatsword mounted on her back.
On the other side of the seated man was another man. He had two black lines going across his face in the shape of an "X." His hood was down, revealing his long black hair that fell to his shoulders. He kept his hands in the pockets of his cloak.
"I didn't expect to have so many guests." The man in the middle remarked. He stared at each person across from him individually. "Jellal, Ultear, Meredy, and Meliodas it seems."
"It's been a while, Malthus." Ultear commented.
"Yes it has, oh lovely Ultear. I heard what happened to Grimoire Heart. My condolences to you. But tell me...why break into my guild and ally yourself with that legal guild TRASH!" Malthus shouted angrily as he pointed to Meliodas.
"Oh...wait of course! You've all become an independent guild called "Crime Sorciere." I've heard about that through my contacts! Trying to redeem yourself?! How pitiful!" Malthus continued.
"Those sins are ours to bear for as long as we live. All we can do now is atone for them. If that means having to dismantle the entire Balam Alliance we previously spent our lives creating, then so be it!" Ultear responded.
"So that's your answer. Such a shame. Solia. Zarkay. Deal with them." Malthus ordered.
The two standing at Malthus' sides got into a fighting stance. Jellal, Ultear, and Meredy also prepared, getting into their own stances. As Solia and Zarkay took their first steps to approach, Meliodas appeared behind them, standing directly in front of Spectre holding Neo Mel Force half drawn.
Jellal, Ultear, and Meredy watched in shock at what they just witnessed. Meliodas fully sheathed Neo Mel Force. At that instant, blood gushed from different spots on Solia and Zarkay's bodies and they fell to the ground.
"Huh...I'm severely outmatched here aren't I…" Malthus commented with a nervous smile on his face, his hand holding his scythe noticeably shaking. He dropped the scythe onto the ground and raised his arms into the air.
"I thought that nickname of yours was merely fluff. I'll admit, I was wrong." Malthus continued as a bead of sweat ran down the left side of his face..
"Does this guild have any documents or resources on spatial magic?" Meliodas asked in a non hostile tone. Malthus looked at Meliodas with a surprised look on his face.
"Nothing like that...but if you want to look through my files, they're on the shelf over there." Malthus responded as he turned his head, gesturing to the shelf.
"Okay then." Meliodas responded. He raised his right hand up in the air. Malthus immediately flinched and leaned back in his chair.
"W-w-w-ait! Don't kill m-" Malthus words were cut short as Meliodas grabbed him by the head. He pulled Malthus towards him before delivering a quick chop to the back of his head and dropping his unconscious body on the ground.