Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.
October 9, x791.
{BGM: "Ashita no Narase" – Amy B}
"Hmm…? I wonder who could be calling at this time…" Mavis said as her lPhone began to ring.
"Maybe it's the Phantom Troupe Subjugation Team." Irene, sitting on a couch in Mavis' office while reading a copy of Sorcerer Weekly, replied casually without looking up from the magazine. "In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it's Alfonzo calling to complain about all the destruction that father-daughter pair caused during the quest."
Though it was said in jest, Irene had a premonition that the call she described would be coming sooner or later. And the actual topic of the call made that quite apparent.
"It's Maki." Mavis said after looking at the Caller ID. "I wonder what he wants…"
With that said, Mavis wasted no time answering the call.
"Maki, good afternoon." Mavis said, her tone as cheerful as usual. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
{"Master Mavis… Those brats have done it again."} Makarov replied from the other side of the phone.
"What do you mean?" Mavis asked, a bad feeling growing in her heart as she glanced at Irene.
{"The Council just received a report about members of Fairy Tail fighting and destroying parts of Altair, the capital city of Stella."} Makarov's response came quickly.
A deep sigh was the only response Mavis could give.
Although the wizards of Fairy Tail were not nearly as destructive as they used to be, that was as a whole. Yet, there were still quite a few wizards in the guild who, when they got excited, or any other number of reasons, fell back into the guild's usual practices.
"I understand." Mavis said in a tired tone. "I'll start drafting the reflection letter immediately. Also, the guild will cover all the costs for Altair's reconstruction. *Sigh* Alfonzo's gonna be really mad that his perfect record of not causing any property damage while on quests was finally ended."
{"Huh? Alfonzo is on the quest in Altair?"} Makarov asked in a surprised tone. {"How is this possible? That kid never causes damage like this?"}
"He's the leader of the team." Mavis replied. "He took several of the S-Class wizards to take on the quest to eliminate the Phantom Troupe. Among them are Gildarts and Cana. I'm just glad he did not take Erza and Natsu. Otherwise, the cost to rebuild the city would be astronomical."
Makarov couldn't help shuddering in his seat in the Magic Council Meeting Room when he imagined the destruction those four could cause together.
"Anyway, I'll give you more information once I hear the full report from Alfonzo." Mavis said while shaking her head. "Until then, we can only wait. But there is some good news, though."
{"What good news?"} Makarov asked.
"Thanks to investing in Sixth Sense Holdings, the guild has enough money to rebuild all of Altair three or four times over if it had to." Mavis said, her cheerful tone returning. "So, you can reassure the representatives from Stella that everything will be fine."
Makarov on the other side of the phone call fell completely silent after hearing Mavis' so-called "good news." Then, after a few seconds, he quietly hung up the call without another word.
{*Boop!* *Boop!* *Boop!*}
"Huh? Why did Maki hang up like that?" Mavis asked as she pulled the lPhone away from her ear and looked at the "Call Ended" prompt on the screen. "That was kind of rude, wasn't it? He didn't even say goodbye."
"It's probably because you scared his soul out of him." Irene said, amusement clear in her tone.
"What did I say?" Mavis asked, genuinely confused about what could have been so scary.
"I believe Alfonzo and Lici call it raising a flag." Irene replied while closing the magazine. "You basically foreshadowed that all of Altair might be destroyed during the quest in Altair."
"Huh? Did I?" Mavis asked while tilting her head cutely. "But that's not what I meant. I was just trying to reassure him that the guild has enough money to cover any damages that have or might happen."
Irene only shook her head slowly with an amused smile on her face.
Earth land, Ishgar, Stella, Altair.
Meanwhile, Alfonzo, who held machi's corpse in one hand and Chrollo's shoulder in the other, suddenly raised his head and looked in the direction of the city in the distance.
"Damn it… This is gonna go on my record, isn't it?" Alfonzo muttered to himself. "It looks like some punishments are gonna be in order when all of this is over."
Reaching that point, Alfonzo shook his head. Then, he returned his attention to Chrollo once again.
"Well, at least all the hostile magic power signatures in the city are gone." Alfonzo continued. "Looks like more than half of the Spider's legs have been cut off already."
"What?" Chrollo asked as his eyes widened. "That's impossible."
"Nothing is impossible." Alfonzo replied while casually tossing machi's corpse to the side. "The fact of the matter is you just weren't strong enough to fight Fairy Tail wizards."
Hearing that, Chrollo, who was quite protective of the members of the Phantom Troupe could not help the grief that overcame him. As a result of such grief, his magic power flared to the point that entire cave serving as the Phantom Troupe's secondary hideout began to shake.
"Oh, you're stronger than I thought." Alfonzo said in an impressed tone. Though, his grip on Chrollo's shoulder did not loosen in the slightest. "Well then, I hope you don't disappoint me."
At the same time, Ur was exchanging blows with Nobunaga on the other side of the city. Meanwhile, Gildarts, Levy, Pakunoda, and Shizuku stood on either side of the battlefield and watched the sword and whip cross repeatedly.
"You know, you may be the most skilled swordsman I've ever seen." Ur said while lashing her whip over and over again at high-speed. "Honestly, I'd love to see who would come out on top between you and Erza. Unfortunately, Saeko and Sun aren't quite strong enough to match you yet. But if they were, those would be good matches, as well."
"Shut the hell up!" Nobunaga shouted angrily. "Take this seriously, you damned Ice Witch!"
"Oh, but if I did that, you wouldn't have gotten a chance to show off this much." Ur said with a shrug that did not mess up her attack rhythm. "Because I'm on a completely different level than the three I just mentioned."
"Hmph! Talk big all you want." Nobunaga said through gritted teeth. "But if you can't even hurt me, then how could you possibly look forward to seeing me fight weaker wizards than you?"
Hearing that, Ur's casual expression slowly turned cold. Having her capabilities doubted by someone that she had clearly been just playing with since the battle started was rather aggravating to her.
"You know, there's a difference between not being able to and choosing not to." Ur said, her tone just as cold as her expression.
*Rip!*
"Ah!" Nobunaga gasped in pain.
In the next instant, Ur flicked her wrist minutely causing her whip to curve past Nobunaga's sword and strike him in the face, tearing the skin on his left cheek.
"You see, it's not that I can't hit you." Ur continued. "it's that I chose not to. It's rare that I come out on quests. And I wanted to make sure that my combat instincts had not gotten rusty."
*Rip~~~~~!*
This time, with the flick of her wrist, Ur's whip snaked past Nobunaga's sword again before wrapping around his torso. However, instead of trying to bind him, Ur yanked back on the whip's handle, causing the whip to harshly slide across Nobunaga's torso.
"*Hiss*" The pain of having a large amount of skin on his torso torn by friction caused Nobunaga to hiss in pain.
"Honestly, I don't even need my magic to put someone like you down." Ur said as she once again lashed her whip at Nobunaga.
*Smack!*
This time, instead of trying to deflect the whip, Nobunaga rolled to the side to avoid the attack. Yet, just as he got back to his feet, the tip of the whip, as if it had eyes of its own, struck the fingers of his right hand.
"Damn it." Nobunaga hissed through gritted teeth while tightening the grip on his sword that almost loosened to the point of dropping it from the pain. "I'll kill you. Then, I'll kill that carrot-top bastard for killing Uvogin."
"But not using my magic would be a waste." Ur replied while ignoring Nobunaga's enraged roar as she watched him charge towards her. "Besides, I've been working on a new spell from something that Alfonzo showed me. A manga that his friend from another world showed him. Anyway, now is the perfect time to try it out."
With that, Ur, with her whip still in one hand, made her casting gesture. Then, once Nobunaga was in range, she swung her whip forward in a way that caused it to form a circle on the ground around the charging Spider.
Seeing the way he had been encircled by Ur's whip, Nobunaga's instincts kicked into overdrive. The danger he could feel coming from whatever the woman in front of him was about to do was higher than any life or death situation he had been in in all his years. Because of that, he pushed his speed to its limit, trying to escape from the boundary on the ground.
"[Ice-Make First Dance: White Moon]." Ur chanted as she yanked the whip back, leaving a thin, iced-over circle on the ground where the whip used to be.
*Freeze!*
In the next instant, everything in the circle, from the ground to the cloud layer was flash-frozen, leaving a tall ice pillar stretching from the ground to high in the sky. And at the center of the enormous ice pillar was Nobunaga, muscles tensed to escape.
But clearly, Nobunaga reacted just a moment too late.
"*Whistle* That new spell is pretty incredible." Gildarts, standing off to the side and watching with Levy, said in a tone filled with admiration.
Meanwhile, the expressions on the faces of Pakunoda and Shizuku did not look too good. All though they were unaware of the fates of the members of the Phantom Troupe who had been dispatched to investigate in the city, this was the second death among their members that they were aware of. And that… made them rather unhappy.
"Damn Guild Wizards." Pakunoda hissed through gritted teeth. "They all deserve to die."
"Yes… They do." Shizuku added as she flared her magic power before a vacuum cleaner formed from her magic power appeared in her hands.
"Oh, it looks like the other two are ready to fight, too." Gildarts said as he looked away from Ur, who was turning to return to his and Levy's side. He then glanced in levy's direction. "So, do you wanna get some exercise, too? Or should I handle them?"
"I'll handle this." Levy said as she tightened her grip on her Light Pen. "If I don't do anything, I'll feel bad for taking a share of the reward money. And Gajee and I need that money. We're planning to buy a nice house in Magnolia before we get married, after all."
"Sure." Gildarts replied with a shrug and a smile. "Then, go ahead. Ur and I will be here just in case you need us to step in. But to be honest, I doubt you'll need that."
"Right." Levy said as she started walking towards Pakunoda and Shizuku. "Even so, I'll be counting on you to watch my back."
"Don't worry, we don't leave our own to die." Ur said as she crossed paths with Levy. "Just go out there and do your best."
Nodding in response, Levy began flaring her magic power in preparation to fight the two remaining members of the Phantom Troupe. Meanwhile, the murderous auras around Pakunoda and Shizuku were growing with every step Levy took.
At the same time, in the underground facility Zash Caine built, Elicia was standing in the middle of a group of disabled automatons while keeping Zash restrained with her threads. Though, it was clear that on top of fighting the automatons, Zash had been used as a human shield several times, as he was covered in wounds, his hair was frazzled, and his clothing was nearly completely shredded.
"Well, those things were stronger than I expected." Elicia said while wiping a bead of sweat off her forehead. She then turned her attention to Zash,, and when she did, her expression turned extremely cold. "Now, the real question is what I should do with you before dragging your sorry behind back to Fiore to face punishment for your coup attempt."
Usually, Zash would never stay silent if a woman, who he only saw as a plaything, were to speak to him like that. But thanks to all the injuries he suffered while, unwillingly, acting as Elicia's human shield, he was too weak to rage at the disrespect.
["Hey, I have an idea."] Scylla said, her tone making it clear that the next thing she said would not be too pleasant for Zash. ["Since he likes to torture and violate women so much, why don't we see how he likes to be on the receiving end. And as it would happen, there are a lot of tools you can use to find out in that room we saw earlier. Plus, I'm sure those women might be interested in seeing their tormenter getting part of the same treatment they received."]
The tools Scylla was referring to were a number of violent sex toys that were scattered all around the room where Elicia found all the captured women. And using those same tools on Zash as a form of punishment while letting his victims watch would definitely be a form of poetic justice.
However, after thinking about it for a few moments, Elicia eventually shook her head at the suggestion.
"As vindicating as that sounds, I don't wanna put those women through that." Elicia said in a downtrodden tone. "They've been through enough. And I'm sure they aren't ready to see something like that quite yet."
["*Sigh* I know you're right."] Scylla replied, her earlier vindictive tone replaced by something much more helpless. ["I guess the only thing we can do for now is make sure that this piece of trash faces the punishment he deserves while trying our best to get them the help that they need."]
"Exactly." Elicia replied with a nod. She then let Zash fall to the ground before turning on him and kicking him in the ribs as she continued. "Anyway, let's get going. We still need to recover the artifact this guy stole when he left Fiore."
*Crack!*
"Argh~~~~~~!* Zash screamed as the pain of several shattered ribs overwhelmed his senses.
With that, Elicia started walking to the biggest source of magic power she could sense in the facility. All the while, she dragged Zash, who was still bound with her [Thread Magic], through the corridors as he continued to howl from the jostling of his injuries.