94 A Way Out

"Well, well, well. There is no end to this." Meliodas sighed loudly as he continued walking through the maze. He couldn't sense any outside magic but could feel a rumbling in the ground, like a small earthquake. 'I wonder if that was Jura.'

Meliodas continued walking through the maze. He thought about the situation with Drole's maze in the past and remembered him and Ban teaming up to break through the walls. "I've been walking for a while. Maybe I should just break through these...but that rune wall gets in the-' Meliodas thoughts were cut off as he noticed up ahead the walls of the maze opened up. 'A way out?'

Meliodas ran towards the open area. The area was covered by a strange purple mist. The ground was a mushy mess of mud and the area had a pungent odor. There were several large mushrooms and strange tall trees whose trunks had a gray tint to them with purplish green leaves that draped downwards. Meliodas slowed down his pace and continued walking forward. Several of the large mushrooms released a strange gas into the air around him.

"This place really stinks." Meliodas commented as he covered his nose. As he looked ahead in the thick mist, he noticed a figure walking towards him.

"Covering your nose won't save you. You've already taken a breath in. It's over for you." The figure said as he got closer. Meliodas took a good look at the person. He was a pale skinned man with long, dry white hair. He had a somewhat sickly appearance and had large bags underneath his eyes. He wore a large black cloak that covered his body.

"And who are you?" Meliodas asked.

"Since you won't be alive much longer, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to tell you. I am Orochi of the Doryu Attack Squad." Orochi replied. He gave Meliodas a puzzled look as Meliodas remained standing aloofly. 'This guy...this poison mist should have paralyzed his body and caused him to collapse. Is his magic strong enough to resist it?'

"Hey you think you could tell me a way out of this maze?" Meliodas asked as Orochi continued staring at Meliodas.

"You may be able to handle this level of poison...but what about something like this!" Orochi said as his body began to glow.

"Takeover: King Cobra!"

Orochi's body began to morph, his lower body now being replaced by the body of a large purple snake. Fangs began to grow in his mouth as purple scales began to cover his human skin. He opened his mouth wide as he let out a thick purple stream of fluid from his mouth that spread out into a gaseous state and filled the air around them.

"This is a more concentrated form of my magic! The acidity is so great, even one small breath will melt your lungs and destroy your body from the inside out!" Orochi laughed.

"Hmm...this isn't good." Meliodas commented nonchalantly as he looked down at his shirt which was starting to melt from the acid. "It's melting my shirt. I'm running out of these."

Orochi's eyes widened as he saw Meliodas standing up completely fine in the acidic cloud. 'What?! How is he-' Meliodas vanished from Orochi's view, reappearing behind him with his hand on the handle of Mel Force as it was slightly unsheathed. As he fully sheathed his blade, blood gushed out of Orochi's body from multiple spots and he fell to the ground unable to comprehend what had happened in that instant.

"Hopefully I can get out of this maze soon." Meliodas said as he tore off what remained of his shirt and continued walking deeper into the maze.

---

Erza looked up at the looming castle as she stood right at the entrance. She could feel a strange presence coming from inside.

"Looks like I made it here first." Erza said as she looked around. There was no sign of Meliodas, Jura, Gajeel, or Lily. 'Then it looks like I'll just have to clear a path up this castle by myself.' Erza thought as she walked in through the main entrance of the castle.

As she entered into a large hall, there were dozens of mages who turned their attention to her.

"Who's she?"

"Hold on that's Titania!"

"She already made it through the labyrinth?"

Erza looked back at all of the mages, who were preparing to attack her. "Looks like we won't be settling things peacefully. Very well!"

Erza's armor began to glow as it changed form into her Heaven's Wheel Armor. She charged forward towards the mages as dozens of blades went flying around the main hall.

---

Meliodas sighed and walked up to one of the walls. He had lost track of how long he had been walking through the maze. He looked up in the sky and saw the sun was about to set. As Meliodas put his hand on the wall to lean on it, he noticed something strange. The rune wall that had originally been there protecting the wall was now gone.

Meliodas pulled out Mel Force and tapped on the wall with the blade. A small part of the wall chipped off, only for a new part to grow in.

'I guess those runes were only there to protect the walls' formation. Looks like they gained some regeneration effect instead once they formed.' Meliodas thought. Meliodas sheathed Mel Force again and took a few steps back. With a running start, he leaped towards the wall and wound back a punch. As his fist collided with the wall, an opening formed. Meliodas slid through the hole but suddenly, the hole started closing while Meliodas was still inside until Meliodas' upper half was sticking out of the wall.

"Well, well, well. Something like this doesn't even compare to Drole's." Meliodas commented. He was nowhere near as strong as he was when he fought Drole, but he knew neither was the wall. A black spiral shaped henna formed above Meliodas' right eyebrow and his eyes turned dark.

He easily broke himself free of the wall as wings of darkness sprouted from his back. Meliodas leaped from his spot, charging straight into the next wall towards the castle.

As he approached the looming castle, he looked up at the top of it. The entire top half of the castle had been blown off and he could sense a large ominous magic coming from that direction.

'I need to get there fast!' Meliodas thought as he sped up, breaking through more of the walls.

---

Unbeknownst to Meliodas, a short middle aged man wearing a black cloak sat in a dark room created by the walls of the maze. He looked at the vision lacrima in front of him, his eyes wide with terror.

'T-that monster...he's breaking through those walls with little trouble at all!'

As he stared at the lacrima, he could feel a rumbling getting closer and closer to him. The walls around him began to shake violently. The man's eyes widened as he realized what was about to happen.

'He was heading straight to the castle...AND I'M RIGHT IN THE PATH TO-'

Suddenly, the wall next to him immediately crashed down as Meliodas flew right through, unaware that in the process he had knocked out the creator of the maze as the man was buried by the falling rocks.