Bab 26: Mel Force
Outside of the mine, the two council guards began conversing amongst themselves.
"Hey I had a question." One of them asked.
"What is it?" The other responded.
"Do you know what's at the bottom of that path in the cave? The one we have the yellow tape blocking off?"
"You joined this post without knowing that? I thought they explained it in the briefing at HQ..." The councilman said, shaking his head.
"Yeah, I may have fallen asleep…"
"You idiot.. Well the reason we put that there was as a warning. It's not too bad as you go a little further in. But the monsters become more powerful as you travel further down. Eventually when you reach the deepest part, I heard that the purest Anti-link crystal exists there."
"Then why aren't we mining it?"
"It's guarded by a saint level beast."
"Don't we have the ten wizard saints. Wouldn't they be able to defeat the monster?"
"In normal situations, perhaps. But the monster at the bottom lives near the purest anti link crystal. Any wizard that goes near cannot use their magic. Because of that, it's extremely dangerous for wizards to go that far down and the saints decided it was too much of a hassle."
"What about those fellows who came for the mission?"
"They came to exterminate some of the beasts in the outer area. It's been dangerous for miners to mine other ores with them roaming around. Besides, those were Fairy Tail wizards, so they should be fine."
---
Meliodas's demeanor changed as a dark aura was emitted from his body. His eyes turned pitch black and a spiral shaped black henna appeared above his right eyebrow. Meliodas's demonic form was not a magical boost, but simply him returning to his original biological state, allowing him to utilize the power boost despite not being able to use magic due to the anti link.
The fearless beasts continued charging at Meliodas despite the tension in the air caused by Meliodas's transformation. Meliodas ran towards the small army of monsters head first, launching those he ran through into the air behind him. The small monsters continued their assault as they tried jumping at Meliodas, with Meliodas punching and kicking them away with great force. With each strike, he could feel the sound of their bones and crystals cracking under his strength as blood gushed out of their bodies.
As Meliodas finished dealing with the smaller monsters, the larger one confronted him. With its massive fists, it threw a barrage of punches at blinding speed at Meliodas. Meliodas countered with his own barrage of punches, his fists meeting the beast's. As the clash continued, Meliodas unleashed an even stronger punch, breaking the monster's right hand up through its entire arm completely.
The monster reeled back in pain but quickly regained its composure as it lunged at Meliodas with its tusks. Just as the tusks were about to impale Meliodas, Meliodas firmly grabbed its tusks. The beast continued pushing forward, pushing Meliodas back a couple of meters as he was forced to dig his feet into the hard stone for leverage.
"Aghhhh!!" Meliodas yelled as he held the monster's tusks tighter, causing them to crack and he threw the massive behemoth straight up into the air. With all of his strength into his left hand, now clad in darkness, Meliodas jumped straight up at full speed causing the ground beneath him to crack, leaving a small crater where he stood. While the monster was defenseless in mid air, he delivered a fatal punch into its torso, the sound of its bones breaking echoed across the cavern. From its large mouth, the monster coughed up a large blob of blood as its body got sent hurtling high into the air until it hit the rocky ceiling above them.
The whole cavern shook from the force the monster slammed into the ceiling causing parts of the ceiling to collapse onto the ground below. Meliodas landed on the ground shortly after and looked up above him, where he saw the monster unconscious and buried halfway into the ceiling, with only its legs dangling out.
Meliodas let out a breath of relief and he jumped across the water back to the large crystal. With a quick, precise jab with his hand shrouded in darkness, a small portion of the crystal snapped off, no larger than the size of a baseball.
"All that hassle for a small piece of this." Meliodas commented as he looked down at the small chunk he broke off. His demonic features began to fade away and his childlike demeanor returned. Meliodas shrugged his shoulders and put the crystal in his pocket before leaping across the water again, walking back the way he came.
Meliodas arrived back at the fork in the path. He climbed back through the tape and saw Gajeel, walking out from the other corridor.
"Yo!" Meliodas greeted him.
"The hell happened with you?" Gajeel commented, looking at Meliodas's tattered clothes.
"Nothing much." Meliodas replied with a grin.
"Tch whatever. I finished my mission here so I'm leaving. And don't worry about the deal we made earlier. I don't need it." Gajeel responded coldly as he continued walking down the corridor with Meliodas right behind him until they were out of the mineshaft.
Gajeel and Meliodas walked out of the mineshaft where the two guards greeted them.
"Did you dispose of the creatures?" One of them asked.
"Yeah. I left their corpses on the ground. You guys can go pick that shit up." Gajeel replied. The guard looked annoyed at Gajeel's rude attitude but let it slide as he finished the job.
"Very well. I'll write that check up for you after I confirm. Why don't you two take a seat inside." The guard gestured to the small house next to them. As he looked back at Gajeel, he saw Meliodas wasn't there with him anymore.
"Where did your friend go?"
"I don't know or care." Gajeel replied
"Alright, I'll go check the area and come back with your reward money."
---
Meliodas returned to Musica's home. He saw Musica outside at his forge, preparing materials for his masterpiece.
"Yo." Meliodas greeted.
Musica turned around to greet Meliodas but was stunned by his appearance. Meliodas's clothes were tattered and there were bruises all over his body. "What happened to you?!"
"Some of those beasts guarding the crystals were a bit annoying."
"I see... Did you bring the crystal?"
"Yeah, here" Meliodas said as he threw the crystal towards Musica.
Musica held the crystal in hand and felt it slowly draining away his magic.
"Where did you find this crystal!?" He asked in surprise. This was the purest ore he had encountered so far. Just being near it was draining him.
Meliodas didn't understand the question as Musica was the one who told Meliodas to go to the mine to begin with.
"You told me to bring a good Anti-link crystal from the mine."
"I didn't expect you to bring one of such high quality. There are almost no impurities in this crystal! It's so powerful that it can absorb your magic even without contact!" Musica exclaimed.
"It was deep in the mine. There was a large chunk of it down there so I broke some of it off. If I grabbed a chunk any bigger than that, I wouldn't be able to bring it here."
"I can't believe you actually managed to grab a piece like this. This sword won't have any errors due to materials now."
"Great, so how long do you think it will take to forge?" Meliodas asked.
"A sword like this will take me an entire day. Feel free to rest up and get yourself cleaned inside." Musica suggested as he turned back around and faced his anvil.
Meliodas turned around and walked into Musica's home where he got himself cleaned up. The injuries he received were superficial and would easily be completely healed by the end of the day.
Meliodas sat down and looked around Musica's small house. It was very comfy, like his own home, and had two rooms. One room was the bathroom while the rest of the house was one large room. There was a small divider in the corner where behind it was Musica's bed. Mounted on the walls, were various swords and weapons of different shapes and sizes.
After spending a while browsing at Musica's mounted weaponry, Meliodas went over to the kitchen. It was a small kitchen with a sink, refrigerator, and gas stove. In the middle, was a small, circular wooden table with two wooden stools. Meliodas picked up one of the stools and moved it next to the refrigerator. He climbed up on top of the stool and at the top of the fridge, saw a different variety of booze. Meliodas looked at each bottle until he decided to try the "Black Five Leafed Clover Liquor." Meliodas picked up the bottle and went outside to check up on Musica.
Meliodas saw Musica outside, fanning the flames of the furnace.
"Dammit!" Musica yelled in frustration.
"What's wrong?" Meliodas asked as he approached Musica. Musica turned around and saw Meliodas coming towards him, holding a bottle of liquor.
"Ah I see you found my liquor. I'll warn you, that stuff will knock you out cold in one sip." Musica commented. Meliodas shrugged as he popped open the bottle and began drinking it.
"So what's the problem?" Meliodas asked again after drinking a good portion of the bottle to Musica's surprise.
"This anti link crystal has a higher melting point than what I've worked with in the past. A pure crystal like this.. I can't believe you managed to find it. I can't smelt this properly unless I had at least triple the current heat…" Musica said as he pointed towards the forge. The crystal was secured in a special case inside of the forge to keep it from absorbing the surrounding magic. Underneath the flame was burning bright and hot.
"Oh it's just heat you need? That's not a problem." Meliodas put the liquor down and raised his hand towards the forge. A black flame formed in Meliodas's palm that shot into the forge.
The orange fires of the forge suddenly turned black. Musica could feel the difference in heat coming from his forge. He peered inside and saw the anti link properly melting.
"What on Ishgar...I've never seen flames like these before…" Musica commented out loud with a surprised look on his face.
"Let me know if you need any more help. Also, these flames can't be extinguished by normal means, so tell me when you need them extinguished." Meliodas said as he picked up the bottle and walked back towards the house.
Meliodas took a seat on Musica's rocking chair and looked up into the sky. It was late in the afternoon and the clear blue skies were beginning to turn a bright orange. In the distance, Meliodas could make out the shape of birds flying in a "V" formation.
---
Early the next morning, Meliodas woke up. He didn't remember falling asleep but saw Musica was hard at work at the forge. Meliodas looked down at the bottle of liquor he had drank, which was now empty. 'I don't normally get drunk easily. This must have been some hardcore stuff.'
Meliodas stood up and stretched his body before walking over to Musica, who was carving out his signature music symbol on the guard of the sword. Musica heard Meliodas approaching and greeted him.
"Good morning. I'm almost done here. Just doing some finishing touches."
Meliodas peered around him and saw the blade. His eyes filled with excitement upon seeing it. In terms of length, it was about the same as Lostvayne. It had a wide blade with a silver colored polish as an outline while the inside of the blade was a darker gray. The guard had Musica's symbol embedded on one side while the other side was Meliodas's dragon sin tattoo, as requested on his blueprint.
"Here, try it out. Let me know how it feels." Musica picked up the sword as he finished the last touches on the design and gave it to Meliodas. As Meliodas grasped the handle, he was surprised at the sword's lightness.
Meliodas faced towards the empty grass field and did a few practice swings, getting a feel for the blade. It felt just as familiar as Lostvayne, if not, easier to swing due to its lighter weight. Despite its weight, it was very sturdy. Meliodas swung the blade vertically straight down with full force, the power of his swing splitting the ground in front of him open in a straight line across the field.
"This blade is fantastic!" Meliodas said. "Does it have a name?"
"Mel Force." Musica replied.
"Why Mel Force?" Meliodas asked.
"You're Meliodas and you have a lot of force?" Musica said realizing it was pretty silly.
"That's kind of silly." Meliodas said laughing.
"Shut it! When you forge a sword, you can name it what you want. Although I apologize for not being able to test the capabilities of the sword in regards to how the anti link will affect your "Full Counter." Musica replied.
"That's not a problem. It works fine. I can tell." Meliodas said as he swung Mel Force one last time.
"Also this is for you." Musica handed over Meliodas a black scabbard with gold trimmings. Meliodas took his old scabbard off and put the new one on and sheathed Mel Force inside of it before hanging it over his shoulder.
"I can't thank you enough Musica. I owe ya one!" Meliodas said.
"It was no problem at all. In fact I must thank you. In this world of mages, I thought there wasn't a single person who had learned the true way of the sword, but you have given me hope. I hope you can reach great heights with this sword in hand."
Meliodas nodded with a grin on his face.
"But I'm surprised a blacksmith like you is so good with a blade." Meliodas said.
"When I was your age, I was out exploring the continent. During my time in Pergrande specifically, I met a powerful swordsman who taught me his techniques."
"My age?" Meliodas laughed. "I'm not so sure about that. But thanks for the sword!" Meliodas waved at Musica as he began walking away. Musica waved back with a confused look on his face. 'How old is he??'
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
ShayZero
ShayZero This is another Rave Master reference and I felt the name was fitting as Meliodas's new main sword.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone