A New Mission

The next ten days, Meliodas spent his time reading various books in the guild library for clues while taking a few breaks. On the tenth day, Meliodas finished reading his books and set them aside. He closed his eyes and sighed.

'No luck… so far everything I've read is just different spells. There aren't even many teleportation spells on a large scale much less traveling between worlds.'

Meliodas decided to take a break and walked into the guild hall. There was huge commotion in the guild. Guild members were rushing out of the guild. Meliodas turned to Mira who had a worried look on her face. Meliodas walked over to her.

"What happened?"

"Loke just quit the guild.."

Meliodas stayed silent as he pondered. 'Who was Loke again…?'

---

The next morning, Meliodas approached the entrance to the guild, he saw Natsu, Happy, Gray, Erza, and Lucy leaving. Behind Erza, was a large wagon filled to the brim with different sized luggage cases that were all tied together.

"You guys heading somewhere?" Meliodas asked as he noticed Erza's change in attire. Instead of the normal armor she donned, she was instead wearing a large sun hat, a button up shirt with a tropical pattern, and an O-shaped tube was worn around her waist.

"We're going on vacation. We'll be gone for the next few days or so." Erza replied as she walked by Meliodas while dragging the large wagon behind her.

"What's even in there?" Meliodas questioned as he watched Erza walk down the road.

"Meliodas! Rematch when I'm back!" Natsu yelled as he ran past Meliodas to catch up with Erza, with Happy, Gray, and Lucy right behind him. Meliodas shrugged his shoulders and continued walking to the guild hall.

Meliodas entered the guild hall and was surprised. It was quieter than normal for once, with fewer people gathered around as most people decided to take their summer vacations at the same time. 'A vacation sounds tempting but I need to find my way back. I've spent the past twelve days doing research and found nothing to help me...and I do also need some extra money.'

Meliodas walked over to the job board and started browsing through the jobs listed. After several minutes of looking at various flyers, one particular job caught his eye. Unlike most of the other jobs, this was a bounty mission requested by the council. On the flyer was a picture of the person they were hunting with a two million jewel reward. 'Capture Ogre for two million jewels? With that much money, I'll be set for a while.'

Meliodas grabbed the job off the board and went towards the bar, but was surprised as Mirajane wasn't there as usual. Instead, he noticed Makarov sitting at one of the tables and approached him.

"Hey Master!" Meliodas said as he approached Makarov. "I'm taking this mission!"

Makarov looked up and saw Meliodas holding a flyer. He looked towards the bar and saw Mirajane was not there and nodded.

"Hmm I see…" Makarov said as he looked at the job. "Okay then good luck." Makarov nodded at Meliodas and Meliodas grinned back before leaving the guild. Shortly after Meliodas left, Mirajane arrived.

"Mira!" Makarov called for her across the hall. Mirajane quickly ran over to Makarov.

"Sorry I am late Master, I had to run some errands."

Makarov took a sip of his drink before answering.

"Not a problem Mira."

Mirajane looked towards the request board, much to the surprise of Makarov.

"Mira, you want to go on a mission?!"

Mira shook her head.

"No, I wanted to take down the job fliers for a few missions. It was a time sensitive matter, and due to the guild's reconstruction period, I wasn't sure if we would be able to take it at the time, So I passed it over to the other guilds."

"Which mission?"

"It was subduing a dangerous mage who was causing harm to local towns."

Makarov continued drinking but stopped abruptly as he remembered a mission Meliodas just took. He slowly put down his drink and looked at Mirajane.

"Was it the one to hunt down Ogre?"

"Yes, did you see it?"

Makarov sighed.

"Meliodas just took it.."

---

In a large, dark room, a figure was seen seated on a throne. The figure was a very tall man with jet black hair, slicked back down to his shoulders. He had pale skin that stood out even in the dark and a pointed nose and goatee. He donned a black cape and underneath that, a black coat. As the figure sat there, another figure emerged from the shadows and knelt down on one knee. This one was much smaller compared to the first and wore a black cloak, with a hood over the figure's head.

"Master Doryu, the preparations have been set. And the officers have been notified and are all making their way here." The cloaked figure said.

"Good. And what of Ogre?" Doryu replied as he glared down at the figure with menacing dark eyes.

"He is on his way to Lily town to complete the Second orb."

"At least that idiot is doing his job." Doryu commented.

"However, sir, it seems Ogre's activities have been noticed by the council. Quite the large bounty has been set to capture him." The figure reached into his cloak and pulled out a wanted flyer with Ogre's face. Doryu furrowed his brow as he looked at the flyer.

Doryu paused for a moment before and slammed his fist on the armrest of the throne, causing the whole room to shake and the chair to crack.

"That FOOL!. I told him to be discreet! No matter, he should almost be finished with his task. As long as he completes it, It won't matter what happens to him!. Aifread, go and retrieve the orb from Ogre directly, even if you have to pick it up from his corpse!"

"Yes, Master Doryu!" Aifread replied before sinking into the ground as he melded into the darkness in the room, disappearing from sight.

After Aifread left the room, an evil grin formed on Doryu's face.

"That power...it will be mine soon."