Into the Eyes of a Demon

Three days have passed since Meliodas met up with Mystogan. After helping with some errands, Meliodas and Mystogan were on their way back to Magnolia Town. They decided to walk instead of taking a train, as Mystogan needed to stop several more Animas on the way.

As they approached they climbed a tall hill overlooking the town nearby. From there, they could see the entire town, but something was off about it. Floating in the air high above it, forming a circle, were hundreds of brightly glowing lacrima. Inside the lacrima, were thunderbolt shaped insignias.

"Thunder palace?!" Mystogan exclaimed.

"What's that?" Meliodas asked, looking curiously at the lacrima. From where he was standing, he could sense a large amount of magic coming from them. As he looked closer, he noticed an electrical aura coming off of them.

"What is Laxus up to…" Mystogan said solemnly.

"Laxus…" Meliodas said out loud as he thought about the large blond man who had confronted him when he first arrived at the guild. "So he was serious after all…"

"Serious about what?" Mystogan asked.

"He said something about erasing all of the weaklings from the guild. I gave him the benefit of a doubt and assumed he was just in a bad mood that day since the guild was recently destroyed…" Meliodas answered.

"I will do what I can to stop Laxus. In the meantime, I ask that you check on Fairy Tail. If what you said was true, they may be in danger right now." Mystogan said with distress in his voice as he began to dematerialize into mist.

"Yeah." Meliodas answered with a serious tone as he leaped from the cliff towards Magnolia Town.

---

At the Fairy Tail Guild Natsu, Gajeel, Happy, and Makarov were gathered in the main hall, where they stood surrounding Erza.

"Erza's back to normal!" Happy cheered. "Do you understand our situation?"

"Yeah...I heard it all, even in my petrified state. Now that I'm back in action, it appears the count is up to date." Erza said. She glanced at the rune wall at the entrance of the guild hall. It read "Remaining Members: 3."

"Three of us my ass! I still can't leave here!" Natsu shouted angrily. He walked back over to the guild entrance where he pressed his face against the seemingly invisible wall. The more Natsu continued to press his face against the wall, the runes read, "No statue nor person over 80 may cross this point."

Another moment passed and the runes began to change. Gajeel looked up at the wall and his eyes widened.

"There's two more now." Gajeel said, pointing to the rune wall. It now read "Remaining Members: 5."

"Who the hell is it?! Everyone else is still stone!" Natsu yelled, continuing to try to force his way through. Makarov's eyes lit up as he saw the number change while a smile formed on Erza's face.

"So they've returned." Erza said.

"Who?!" Natsu yelled.

"Mystogan and Meliodas."

---

Back in Magnolia Town, Meliodas ran across the tops of buildings, while he looked around. Below him, he could see various members of the guild lying unconscious on the street. 'What happened here? Did Laxus take them all out?'

Meliodas continued traversing the rooftops of Magnolia but stopped in his tracks. A laser beam hit the roof tile right in front of him, destroying part of the roof.

Meliodas looked up to see where it was shot from. There he saw a strange man floating above him, standing on two wooden dolls, one on each foot. The wooden dolls were quite small and were reminiscent of tribal totems with individually painted faces. The man had a knight's visor over his eyes and a striped tunic with skull patterned shoulderguards. The man grinned and stuck his tongue out, revealing the Fairy Tail insignia on his tongue.

Meliodas looked at him in confusion. He had never seen him before, but based on the insignia, he was from Fairy Tail. Despite that, the man was clearly aiming that laser at him.

"Well, well, well. You shouldn't be aiming blasts like that at a comrade." Meliodas said to the strange man. The man began laughing maniacally as he descended to the rooftop.

"I heard about you, Meliodas! And you? A comrade?! I don't consider the weak my-" The man stopped mid sentence and froze as he got a closer look at Meliodas. Under his visor, his eyes widened. 'What the hell is this kid?! Is he not a human...?!'

"I-I don't consider the weak my comrades!" The man finished, regaining his composure and sticking his tongue out again. From his floating wooden dolls, he hopped onto the other side of the roof where Meliodas was standing and three more wooden dolls appeared to his side, for a total of five.

"Go my babies! Destroy him!" The man laughed and the dolls immediately charged at Meliodas firing lasers at him and kicking up a large cloud of dust and smoke.

"AHAHA! Behold the power of Bickslow of the Thunder-" Bickslow stopped laughing as the smoke cleared, revealing Meliodas standing up with his arms out in front of him. He was mostly undamaged by the blast, with only his sleeves slightly burned off, revealing both his Fairy Tail and Dragon Sin insignias. Meliodas put his arms down and looked up at the strange man.

"I see. You are stronger than I thought! You may be able to take blasts from my babies individually, but how about from all five at once?! Go my babies, Baryon Formation!" Bickslow yelled.

The dolls approached Meliodas and flew into a pentagonal formation where they began to spin around, forming a hollow center. As they spun, Meliodas could feel their magical power rising greatly.

"Fire!" Bickslow yelled.

The dolls began to glow as they spun faster and faster, creating a whirlwind. From the center of the formation, a powerful green beam of magic was fired straight at Meliodas. Meliodas prepared himself and put his hand on Mel Force's handle on his back. As the laser was about to hit him, he swung his blade.

"Full Counter!"

Meliodas swung his sword causing the large laser to reflect back at the dolls that shot it, but with even greater intensity. Bickslow's laugh froze as his jaw dropped in shock.

"NOOO MY BABIES!" Bickslow exclaimed as he watched his dolls get enveloped by the light of their own laser, fully disintegrating them. Nothing but their ashes fell to the ground as Meliodas sheathed his blade again.

"How could you do that to my babies…" Bickslow said with a sad tone. His sadness was short lived as he suddenly started laughing again.

"Just kidding! I got more!" Bickslow yelled as he stuck his tongue out. The next moment, even more dolls started floating up from beneath the building.

"Toys?" Meliodas questioned as he looked at them. There were various action figures and mannequins that Bickslow was now controlling, some of them still in their boxes.

"How unlucky for you that we happened to be standing on top of a toy store! You can destroy my babies all you want but they'll still keep coming back!!" Bickslow laughed.

"We'll see about that." Meliodas retorted. He jumped up into the air towards the dolls. Gripping the handle of Mel Force tightly, he narrowed his eyes and charged forward.

"LIGHTNING SWORD FLASH."

Bickslow, without blinking, watched Meliodas vanish from his sight and suddenly reappear behind the dolls, the dolls behind him each having been cut up into tiny

pieces. Meliodas sheathed his sword again and landed on the roof, with the pieces of the dolls falling behind him. Bickslow stood there in awe at Meliodas's speed and swordsmanship. 'This guy...he's as fast as Laxus!'

"Bickslow was it?" Meliodas asked as he began walking towards Bickslow. "I'm giving you a chance here as a fellow guild member."

Bickslow grinned and lifted his visor as Meliodas approached him, revealing his green glowing eyes. Meliodas looked straight into Bickslow's eyes as he walked forward.

"Figure Eyes!"

Meliodas kept going forward as Meliodas and Bickslow made eye contact. Immediately upon trying to control Meliodas's soul, Bickslow froze. As he peered deep into Meliodas's soul, he saw an apparition of a black demonic figure that loomed over Meliodas.

"W-what are-" Bickslow stuttered. His question was interrupted as Meliodas punched Bickslow in the face right between the eyes, his fist sinking into his face and breaking his nose.

Bickslow was sent flying to the ground below, hitting the ground hard and forming a crater in the street. Blood gushed from Bickslow's face as he fell unconscious. Meliodas jumped off the roof and landed on the ground next to him and looked down at Bickslow's unconscious body.

"Well I gave you a chance didn't I? Meliodas said frankly.