2 Perfect Time

In an alleyway away from the bustling streets of Magnolia, a ripple in space began to form in the air several feet off the ground. A black cat rummaging through a dumpster peeked its head out as it stared at the strange occurrence. A loud screech echoed throughout the alleyway as a rift no larger than the size of a tall man, opened through the foundations of space. The cat leaped high into the air and let out a high pitched scream of fear. As it landed on the ground, several mice from underneath the dumpster scurried out of the alleyway, with the black cat close behind.

The rift continued to grow as a bright light shined out of it, lighting up the once dark alleyway. From the rift, a figure was launched out onto the hard stone floor. As the figure lay there, the light of the rift faded away as the tear in space closed, as if never there to begin with.

Several minutes went by as the figure lay on the ground, motionless. Slowly, he opened his eyes and found himself staring at the clear blue sky above, with high brick walls on both sides of him.

'What happened…' Meliodas thought as he sat up. He rubbed his eyes and felt every muscle in his body aching as he tried to stand up. The last thing he recalled was fighting Cath before being hurled.

'Where am I?'

Meliodas looked ahead and saw a bright street with several people walking by. He took a step and felt his head throb but continued on through the pain. With each step through the long alleyway, the pain in his body began to recede. As Meliodas approached the sidewalk of the main road, he stood in both awe and confusion of the buildings around him.

They were a lot more vivid than the ones in Liones and the architecture was unlike anything he had seen before, although the style itself was somewhat reminiscent of Britannia's medieval theme. Down the road was what appeared to be a giant Cathedral, with four towers on each corner. A golden bell rested near the top of its green roof.

Meliodas continued looking around at the buildings as if he was in some kind of dream. His awed expression turned serious as he remembered what had just transpired in his fight to the death with Cath.

'Cath...he sent me through some sort of portal using Chaos. Am I even in Britannia anymore?'

Meliodas stood still with a serious look on his face as he got lost in his thoughts. Unaware of what was happening around him, people began to swarm around him. Meliodas breaks out of his daze as he realizes there were at least a dozen people staring at him. A few girls giggled and a mother covered her child's eyes.

Meliodas suddenly felt a cold breeze hit him as he looked down at his body. He realized that he was completely naked, his clothes had probably disintegrated while he was traveling through the rift.

'I should probably get some clothes first.' Meliodas chuckled and leaped on top of a tall building nearby to hide from any more onlookers.

'Now where should I-' Meliodas's thoughts were cut short as he felt a huge magical presence coming from beyond the northern side of the town.

'That feeling...could it be Cath? No. It's different. But it might have something to do with the rift Cath sent me through. I can worry about clothes later. I'll go check it out now!'

Meliodas focused on the magical power as he leaped from the tops of buildings. As he ran across the rooftops, he felt something was off about his body. His body felt strangely sluggish and heavy.

'My strength...is nowhere near what it once was. It's a similar feeling to when Merlin had sealed most of my power away in that Goddess amber...but I feel a bit weaker than that right now...'

Meliodas shook the thought as he continued to jump across the rooftops. Several bystanders watched in shock as they saw what appeared to be a blond naked boy jumping across the roofs. A few rubbed their eyes, thinking they were dreaming. As Meliodas continued making his way to the source of the large magical power, he stopped in his tracks as he felt a strange presence watching him. Meliodas looked up into the sky and caught a brief glimpse of what appeared to be a woman with long white hair wearing a kimono walking through a strange portal in the sky that quickly closed behind her.

'Am I seeing things?' Meliodas thought to himself and rubbed his eyes before continuing along the tops of the buildings.

After a few minutes of hopping across buildings, Meliodas arrived at where he sensed the dense magical power coming from. In front of him, were a large group of people who he suspected to be mages of some sort as he could sense magic coming from each of them. They were all facing towards a large lake.

In the lake, stood an enormous castle that had four giant legs sprouted underneath it. Coming from the center of the castle, was a long barrel of a cannon. At the tip, a dense amount of magic was gathered up, ready to fire.

Meliodas shook his head in disappointment. It wasn't it. The magic he sensed was just from the cannon and had nothing to do with his arrival. It was just a battle between mages. Not caring to get involved, Meliodas began to turn around to walk away but stopped as he heard a young woman's yell.

"You won't lay a hand on my friends! I won't let you take down our guild!"

Meliodas turned around and saw a young, red haired woman, heavily clad in protective armor, standing in the way of the behemoth cannon's blast with a look of fierce determination on his face. Meliodas, who initially didn't want to get involved, clenched his fist as he felt the young woman's resolve to protect her friends. From a pile of rubble nearby, he picked up a wooden stick lying on the ground. 'It wouldn't hurt to help them out.' He thought to himself as he rushed over and heard the cries of the other mages.

"Erza what are you going to do?!"

"No! Erza you're going to die!"

"Don't tell me she's going to try to stop that attack?!"

People in the crowd behind Erza yelled out to her as she braced herself. In front of her, the cannon continued to charge its immense magic but she showed no sign of backing down. There was a brief silence as the cannon finished charging. The cries of the crowd grew silent and a highly concentrated beam of magic fired from the cannon.

Erza prepared to take the blast head on as she put her arms in front of her, only for her determined expression to turn into shock as she stared wide eyed at a naked, blond boy who suddenly appeared in front of her... holding a stick?

"Full Counter!"