The Hindrance

A lone man sat on a stone throne in the middle of a huge hall. The man had long, dark purple hair that reached his shoulders while the majority was tied into a ponytail with the rest covering his forehead as messy bangs. He donned a black jacket with rolled up white cuffs and in his left arm, he held a book with the letters "E.N.D." written on it.

"Lord Mard Geer." Kyoka said as she took a knee in front of the man.

"What do you have to report?" Mard Geer asked.

"Jackal failed in his mission to destroy the council completely due to the interference of The Blond Demon." Kyoka said.

"Oh…I believe he went by Meliodas…I expected him to be a thorn at our side, but not to this extent…" A smile formed on Mard Geer's face and he stood up from his seat, still holding the book close to his body.

"Perhaps more than one of the demon gates is required to take him down. This time, Kyoka, I want you, Torafuzar, and Silver to destroy the council completely. And if Meliodas is to get in your way, kill him."

"Of course my lord." Kyoka responded as she got up and exited the hall. As he walked down the corridor, she was greeted by Franmalth and a broad, tall man with a bushy beard walking out from another room nearby.

"Crawford." Kyoka said, causing the two walking in front of her to stop and look at her. "What is the progress on finding the keys to face?"

"I've actually come across some outstanding information." Crawford said with a grin. "One of the keys is located on Jellal and I happened to find his most recent location."

"Jellal? Gehehehe. If our reports about Jellal are as outdated as the ones on Meliodas, he might pose a threat to us too!" Franmalth added.

"Then we'll just have to send more than one Demon Gate this time to be certain." Kyoka said.

"Will you be going yourself?" Crawford asked.

"No. Lord Mard Geer assigned me in dealing with Meliodas along with Torafuzar and Silver. Jackal should be almost recovered by now and we have Tempester on standby. Those two should suffice in dealing with Jellal." Kyoka answered.

—

"Will it be okay leaving Jellal to handle the entirety of the Oracion Seis?" Lahar asked as he glanced over at Meliodas. Meliodas sat down with his back against a half broken pillar with a bottle of Cureberry Ale in hand.

Meliodas took a few gulps of his ale.

"Yeah. He can take care of them by himself."

"And is now really the time to be drinking?!" Lahar questioned in a semi agitated tone. Meliodas looked at Lahar and simply smiled.

"Well it's been quiet the past couple of days. And you guys are just doing renovations at this point." Meliodas pointed towards the dozens of councilmen doing various construction work on the building.

Lahar sighed and looked towards where Meliodas was pointing to.

"Well stay on your guard then. You never know when-" Lahar paused as Meliodas immediately sprang up from the ground. At that instant, he found himself completely encased in a huge block of purple ice.

"M-Meliodas?!" Lahar exclaimed. Several other council workers nearby noticed the commotion.

"What's going on?!"

"Are we under attack again?!"

Lahar began to look around frantically. As he looked towards the main hall, he could hear the sound of three pairs of footsteps coming from the darkness.

Kyoka emerged first, with two others at her side. One was an extremely massive and muscular demon humanoid with the characteristics of a shark and a lizardman. His body was a dark pink in color and covered in hard scales with a single dark protrusion coming from the top of his head that resembled a fin.

The other was a tall, well built man with black eyes and hair styled back into pointy strands. He had a sharp face and long scar extending from his hairline to his lower left ear. He wore black tight fitting shirt underneath his a suit of armor with the words "Absolute Zero" over the left breast.

Kyoka stared at Meliodas who was encased in ice.

"So this is the Blond Demon?"

"I don't understand how Jackal lost to him if he was to be encased in ice so easily. In that case, shall I begin to slaughter the current council here?" The shark-like demon asked.

"No, we'll make sure he's dead first, Torafuzar." Kyoka answered. She looked over to the other man at her side and noticed he had a look of wonder on his face as he stared at Meliodas.

"Silver, what's wrong?"

"It's only just started." Silver said with a nervous grin. He continued to stare at Meliodas. 'This guy…the Blond Demon was a real demon all along…and unlike any I've ever come across. He has a strange dark substance, something that isn't quite magic, generated within his body and it looks like he once had seven hearts, but now he's down to three…'

The ground around them began to shake as cracks started to form in the ice that encased Meliodas. More cracks began to form in the ice before suddenly shattering into large chunks as Meliodas swung his arms forward, landing on the ground. Meliodas looked at the three individuals standing in front of him, his hands shivering from the cold.

"W-well, well, w-well…" Meliodas said, still shivering. "So you've finally come to me."

"Are you alright Meliodas?" Lahar asked. Meliodas nodded, but he looked noticeably cold.

"J-Just get out of here." Meliodas said, still shivering. "I'll deal with them."

"Understood." Lahar turned and faced the other council members. He raised his hand up and a huge wall of runes appeared behind him, splitting him up from Meliodas.

"Evacuate the premises now!" Lahar shouted. The other council members immediately took off running towards the exit, with Lahar right behind them.

"Such a trivial barrier." Torafuzar commented. "I will give chase."

"No. We can find them later. We need to deal with this one first." Kyoka said.

Meliodas looked down at his shivering hands. Black flames began to form in Meliodas' palms and a look of intrigue formed on Silver's face.

'Hellblaze isn't warming me up either…I've been through the cold of purgatory and even the demon realm has its own massive fluctuations in temperature from time to time…that isn't ordinary ice…' Meliodas looked back up at Kyoka, Torafuzar, and Silver. He put his hand on the handle of Neo Mel Force and jumped up into the air.

"Divine Slayer!"

Meliodas slashed forward with his sword, creating a large arc of black flames that was launched at the three Tartaros members. Silver immediately stepped forward and made a swiping motion with his left hand. A huge wall of ice appeared in front of the three of them. The black flames of hellblaze slammed into the wall of ice, engulfing them.

Meliodas landed on the ground and stared at the wall of ice that was not melting from hellblaze while the flames themselves started to fizzle out.

'Ice that can't be melted by hellblaze…and this cold sensation. Whatever that guy's magic is, I can't let myself get hit by that again."

Torafuzar jumped up from behind the wall and charged straight at Meliodas. Meliodas prepared his blade, but stopped as he found his feet frozen to the floor. Torafuzar wound back his fist and threw a punch straight at Meliodas' face.

Meliodas took the punch head on, getting knocked back and skidding across the floor as he tried to keep his feet planted in the ground.

Torafuzar looked at his hand he used to punch Meliodas and noticed blood coming out of his knuckles. 'I have the greatest defense among the nine demon gates…yet I was the one who got hurt when I punched him?!'

Meliodas looked towards his left arm which was still covered in ice. He clenched his fist hard, causing it to break but immediately dropped Neo Mel Force onto the ground as numbness started to overcome his left hand.

At that moment, Meliodas felt a presence behind him and a talon-like hand was placed on his left shoulder. In the next moment, his vision went black. The world became quiet. The sensation on his shoulder was gone. All he could feel was the overwhelming cold he has been feeling the entire time.

Kyoka wound her hand back as a whip-like construct formed in her hand.

"How does it feel to be deprived of your senses!" Kyoka lashed at Meliodas with the whip. Without turning around, Meliodas grabbed the whip in his right hand and yanked Kyoka towards him.

"H-how are you able to-"

Kyoka went silent as Meliodas' features began to change. His eyes went pitch black as a black circle marking with a splotched outer ring extended out of the center of his forehead.

Without a word, he threw Kyoka straight towards Torafuzar, the force of the throw sending the two demons flying straight out of the building. Silver stared wide eyed at Meliodas with a dumbfounded expression.

'This demon…I thought my Ice Devil Slayer magic would be enough to weaken him but…' Silver looked back towards where Kyoka and Torafuzar were launched, their bodies mangled and nearly unrecognizable. 'Just throwing them broke all of their bones… they're barely alive as is…'

As Silver stood there, distracted at that brief instant, Meliodas had already walked past him and towards the two other demons. At that moment, a realization hit Silver hard. 'Meliodas, a demon who surpassed all other demons, an even greater monster than Mard Geer…Is he also a monster created by Zeref?'