March 5th X788
As quick as the Grand Magic Games started, the year ended. Meliodas continued his prolonged stay at the guild, temporarily parting ways with Crime Sorciere but still keeping in touch with them. At the guild hall, there weren't many missions that suited his interests. Thanks to the actions of Meliodas and Crime Sorciere, most of the dark guilds in Fiore were either disbanded or went into hiding.
Meliodas sat at the bar, the sound of guild chatter around him. It was a generally upbeat atmosphere. Even more people had joined since the Grand Magic Games, as many young and aspiring mages saw Fairy Tail in action.
Meliodas stared down at his almost empty mug of ale with a blank expression on his face as his reflection was barely visible on the liquid.
"Hey Meliodas, are you alright?" Macao asked as he approached Meliodas.
"Yeah, there's just not much I can do at the moment. I've read almost everything the guild has to offer and I still have no clue how I can return to my world." Meliodas replied as he slumped over.
"If there isn't much you can do then why not take the time to relax a bit. You spent 3 years constantly chasing down dark guilds. It's a new year, take another break and set out with a refreshed mind." Macao said as consoled Meliodas.
"You may have a point." Meliodas replied as stood up. He bid farewell to Macao and walked outside the guild. The moment he left the guild building, a blast of cold wind hit his face, waking him up. It was winter and Magnolia Town was draped in a thick blanket of snow. Meliodas ignored the cold as he trudged through the snow thinking about what Macao had said to him previously. He had been running around aimlessly, trying to find any clues to get back to his world and had no luck with his search. Time was running short, and he didn't know how his friends in Britannia were faring. Even assuming they were okay, he still missed them greatly. Meliodas trudged along in the snow that went past his ankles, eventually reaching his house in the outer part of town.
The house was a large two story building, similar in size and stature to the other buildings around it, having the same brick style and red roof. Meliodas had bought the house for 10,000,000 Jewels after Schneider's death, but hardly spent any time in it due to traveling with Crime Sorciere.
He walked inside the house into the entryway, kicking off his snow covered boots to the side before heading into the living room. The living room was mostly empty, except for one large cushioned chair with a dark wooden table next to it. A couple of meters ahead of the chair was the brick fireplace, where a portrait of Elizabeth was framed perfectly in the center high above the mantel.
After lighting up the fireplace, Meliodas took a seat in the cushioned chair, putting both his arms on the armrest as he stared at the fireplace. 'I've been in this world for more than four years now...looking back in that battle against Cath...could Cath have sent the sins over to this world as well? Or did he send them to different worlds entirely…' Meliodas thought to himself. His mind racing as the endless possibilities of what could have transpired in Britannia while he stared at the flickering flames.
---
March 6th, X788
The next day, Meliodas entered the guild back to his usual cheerful self. Macao noticed this change and smiled at Meliodas.
"Welcome back Meliodas!" Macao greeted with a wave across the guild hall as he sat at the bar. Several other guild members nearby noticed Meliodas and greeted him as well.
"Yo!" Meliodas greeted back, before taking a seat next to Macao at the bar.
"You know, I've been wondering about something, Meliodas." Macao said as Meliodas took a seat. "It's been years since you joined...yet you haven't aged at all."
"Oh? You must want my secret to staying young then. I see you growing a few wrinkles old geezer." Meliodas said with a cheeky grin.
"Heh, alright. You got me." Macao sighed. 'But how the hell does Meliodas look exactly the same still?'
Meliodas stayed at the guild for a few hours, drinking with the other guild members before leaving. He was now reinvigorated and prepared to start up his search once again. Meliodas stepped outside the guild, taking a deep breath of fresh cold winter air. He stretched his arms out and looked up at the sky where he noticed a raven flying straight towards him.
The raven landed on his shoulder and Meliodas noticed a small scroll tied to one of its legs. Meliodas carefully took the scroll, untying it from the raven. The moment he did, the raven flew off.
Meliodas unravelled the scroll and saw it was a note from Crime Sorciere. All the note contained were the numbers of map coordinates. He pulled out his map from his requip inventory, marking where he is supposed to go. 'So it's northwest of Clover Town and past Mount Hakobe…'
Before leaving, he crumpled the note up in his hand into a ball, burning it up with black flames until not even the ashes were left. Jet black wings emerged from his back and with a great leap, Meliodas took off from the ground, soaring high into the air.
---
Meliodas approached the designated location. It was a mountainous area with many jagged rocks making it difficult to walk through. Coming from behind one of the jagged rocks in a cave was a dim orange light. 'That must be them.' Meliodas thought as he landed at the mouth of the cave where he saw three figures sitting around a campfire.
"Yo!" Meliodas greeted them as he sat down. "It's been a while hasn't it!"
"It sure has. About half a year since we last met up." Ultear commented.
"Wow! You still look the same after all this time!" Meredy said as she stared at Meliodas. She had grown a lot over the past four years and was now much taller than Meliodas. Ultear was also a bit surprised as she stared at Meliodas's childlike face.
"Four years isn't too much time for me." Meliodas said with a cheeky smile.
"So when exactly do you hit your growth spurt? Won't people start getting suspicious that you aren't growing?" Meredy asked.
"Growth spurt? Hard to say...demons like me live to be at least a thousand, but I'm a bit different from them so I'll probably live longer than that." Meliodas mused. "And I think a few people in the guild noticed that I haven't been aging although they haven't really pried into it."
"Do people in Fairy Tail even know you're a demon?" Ultear asked.
"I never told anyone directly apart from you guys. Although I think there were a few who figured it out, they were on Tenrou…" Meliodas said, his cheerful tone vanishing for a brief moment.
"Well there are other demons in this world that aren't made by Zeref, such as the ones who reside in Galuna Island. But they're nothing like you at all." Ultear replied.
"Well in Britannia, being a demon wasn't something I could just tell people. It feels like the same goes for this world too. If anyone really pries into it, I don't mind telling them though." Meliodas replied nonchalantly.
The trio looked at each other and shrugged. Meliodas had a point. There wasn't much use dwelling on it at this point.
"Anyway, the reason we called you here was because we discovered the location of a dark guild." Jellal said, changing the topic. "You'll be particularly interested in this one as this dark guild's business is selling books on various black arts, lost magic, and forbidden magic. You may find what you're looking for from this guild."
"Unfortunately, there's not a lot of time left to get to them." Ultear added.
"By the time we discovered the guild, one of the nearby towns had already issued a job for legal guilds to get rid of them, as the dark guild has been harassing many merchants coming in and out of the town."
"That's strange... When did the mission request go out?" Meliodas asked. 'A request for a dark guild like that never went out to Fairy Tail.'
"It went out yesterday, but the town sent the request to Sabertooth." Ultear replied.
"It seems after getting first place in the Grand Magic Games, their popularity skyrocketed." Meredy said. "Even though you are highly regarded, you are still just one person, so not many people can wait around for you to take the requests."
"I see..." Meliodas nodded. Even though Fairy Tail had performed well, they still lost out to a few guilds, so naturally, more missions went to the guilds that ranked above them. 'Maybe I should have taken that last event more seriously…'
"As far as we know, nobody hasn't completed the mission yet. If you want, we can go with you." Jellal suggested.
"Is the dark guild strong?" Meliodas asked.
"Not particularly. Maybe compared to the average mage, but not to us." Ultear replied. "Any one of us can easily take it down alone. They're a guild that focuses on the gathering and selling of information rather than pure combat."
"Then, I'll do it alone. Since it's been designated as a legal guild mission, it's best not to draw any unnecessary trouble going in a group. Where is it located?" Meliodas asked, pulling out his map from his requip inventory.
"It's west of a mountain town called Cataria Town. It's pretty close to here." Jellal answered.
"Well then, I guess it's time I get going." Meliodas said, closing his map and putting it back into his requip inventory. Before leaving the cave, Meliodas' clothes began to glow, disappearing and quickly reforming into a large black cloak and hooded jacket with black pants. On the back of the black cloak, was the Crime Sorciere symbol.
"Where did you get another cloak?!" Ultear questioned. "The one I gave you was blue!"
Meliodas paused and turned around to face Crime Sorciere.
"Oh, this? I made it myself. The other cloak you gave me got kind of destroyed... By the way, what's the dark guild called?" Meliodas asked.
"Masquerade."