Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Oak.
October, x781.
Just as Alfonzo expected, it took him about a month to get back into fighting shape after reattaching his severed arm. In that time, the arm's stiffness from being turned into a bio-organic metal object was reversed. Eventually, it took on his normal skin tone as well as the softness and flexibility of human flesh.
However, it became quite a bit stronger than his right arm. Though Alfonzo managed to narrow the gap somewhat with training. In fact, Alfonzo planned to infect his other arm and both is legs with the Techno Organic Virus at some point in the future. Though, now was not the time. He had yet to understand all the capabilities of his upgraded limb, after all.
On another note, Laki, who had been rejected by Alfonzo had no visible change in her attitude around Alfonzo. In fact, she had not changed at all. Even though she did not like it, she understood why Alfonzo chose to reject her. She was different than everyone else, after all. Though, she did take more glances at the other girls in Alfonzo's harem, wondering if she were to become more like them if he would accept her.
In the end, however, she dismissed those thoughts. What was the point of being with someone if they could not accept you for who you are?
Other than those two things, Fairy Tail had been operating as usual. Meaning, there were many brawls in the guild hall, the wizards took, and completed, many quests, and Makarov received many letters of complaint and requests for compensation from the clients of the completed quests and the Magic Council.
Included in that number of completed quests was Elicia's most recent S-Class quest. And right now, she was on her way back to Magnolia, driving across Fiore in her Z3.
"*Sigh* Are there any dark wizards that don't worship Zeref?" Elicia muttered as she drove at a leisurely pace. "And why do they do so many messed up things? I mean, sacrificing virgin boys? Why would they ever think that would bring him back to life? I wonder what they would think if they knew he was still alive. Would they feel like they had been wasting their time? Or maybe, they would feel like they've been lied to and throw a tantrum like a scorned lover? That might be funny to see."
Elicia's last quest was to investigate a string of missing children from the villages around Oak Town. However, it ended up being a much less difficult quest than she expected. As it turned out, one of the children, a highly intelligent young boy managed to leave a trail by quietly tearing off pieces of his clothing, chewing on it for a while, and dropping them out of the carriage he was being transported in.
In most cases, that would not do much to help the boy's situation. However, with Elicia's [Thread Detection] spell, she was able to pick out anything that seemed abnormal in the area if she could generate enough threads.
Considering how much magic power she had, only behind Alfonzo, who had gone through Gildarts' most grueling training regimen for years, and Laxus, who was four years older than her, in the younger generation of the guild, she could created an uncountable number of threads.
Eventually, she found the Dark Guild's hideout. Although she was unable to rescue all the boys, some of whom were killed after irritating the dark wizards, Elicia rescued all who were alive. On top of that, she managed to capture all of the dark wizards in the hideout without much trouble.
"*Sigh* I really want some of Fonzie's cooking and a long night with him and Cana." Elicia said, continuing to talk to herself. "After seeing so many dead kids, I need something to help me unwind."
*Screech!"
A moment later, Elicia slammed on the Z3's breaks after feeling a surge of magic power. Then, her head snapped in the direction the spike in magic power came from. She then closed her eyes to feel the situation more clearly.
"Looks like a fight is going on over there." Elicia said to herself as she opened her eyes. "I should go see what's going on."
With that, Elicia stepped on the accelerator and drove off the road in the direction she felt the commotion.
Meanwhile, not far from Elicia's current position, a beautiful, green-haired woman appearing to be in her early twenties with brown eyes and an amazing figure was struggling to stand. On top of having dangerously low amounts of magic power remaining, there were injuries such as cuts and bruises all over her body. On top of that, her beautiful and luxurious clothing was torn in many places.
One of those tears, exposing a bloody gash on the left side of her abdomen, revealed the guild mark of one of the guilds allied with Fairy Tail, Blue Pegasus.
"Damn it, if I live through this, I'm going to torture that Leo until he begs me to kill him." The green-haired woman, Karen Lilica, said through gritted teeth with a furious scowl on her face.
"Oh, don't look at me like that." A light blue-haired woman with brown eyes and quite the alluring figure in her own right, said in a playful, yet sadistic tone. "You wouldn't be in this situation if you had just done as I asked and handed over your Celestial Spirit Keys."
As she spoke, the light blue-haired woman smiled while waving a pair of golden Celestial Spirit Keys that she held in her left hand while gesturing at the tall, lean-built, brown-skinned man behind her with a head of half-white and half-red hair, and a scorpion-like tail with a gun barrel at its tip wearing red flower-shaped plates around his neck, black shorts, a red sheet like accessory around his waist, a black belt with a Scorpio symbol holding it in place, and metallic wrappings around his arms and legs.
"I mean, from what I can tell, you can't even summon a spirit right now." The light blue-haired woman said mockingly. "How bad at [Celestial Spirit Magic] do you have to be?"
"Shut up, you little bitch!" Karen snarled, her face morphing with inhuman amounts of anger. "If I get out of this alive, I'll make you pay for insulting me."
"Oh my, how scary." The blue-haired woman said with a highly exaggerated, mock expression of fear. "Well then, it's a good thing I don't plan to let you leave here alive, wouldn't you say?"
In response, all Karen could do was grit her teeth in anger and humiliation.
Just as the light blue-haired woman had said, Karen was not much of a [Celestial Spirit] wizard. Although she was a talented wizard, having contracts with two Golden Celestial Spirit Keys and their spirits, she was the worst contractor her two spirits could have ever hoped for.
Most of those who use [Celestial Spirit Magic] treat their spirits with the base level of respect, even if they don't get along. And the reason is simple, [Celestial Spirit Magic] users do not fight directly. Instead, they rely on their spirits to battle and protect them.
Karen' however, only sees her contracted spirits as tools, things to do with as she pleases. In fact, she has gone so far as to use them as meat shields to protect herself. She would beat and berate them whenever she was having a bad day. And worst of all, she even intended to order one of her two Golden Celestial Spirits to perform sexual favors for some of the men she kept company with, which was the indirect cause of the situation she found herself in now.
Fed up with the way his companion, Aries, had been treated, Karen's other spirit, the aforementioned Leo, appeared in Aries' place when Karen tried to summon her, using his own magic power. Fortunately, with Leo present, Karen was unable to summon another Celestial Spirit, as most [Celestial Spirit Magic] users can only have one spirit summoned at a time.
Once Leo appeared, he demanded that Karen cancel the contracts she had with all her spirits, as he could no longer stand the abuse she put them through.
Naturally, Karen denied Leo's demand. In return, Leo refused to return to the Celestial Spirit world, the place where all Celestial Spirits reside when they are not being summoned, resulting in Karen losing the ability to summon any of her other spirits.
At first, Karen tried to close the gate Leo used to arrive on Earth Land forcibly. Unfortunately, her will was not strong enough to contest with Leo's. Then, in rage, she threatened him with what she would do to Aries after he could no longer remain on Earth Land.
This, in turn, led Leo to fight through the uncomfortable feeling of being on Earth Land that all Celestial Spirits feel when they are summoned even harder. And this stalemate went on for three months. Three months that Karen was unable to take any quests.
In those months, Leo secluded himself in some ruins not too far from the Blue Pegasus guild hall, waiting for Karen to accept his demands. Karen, on the other hand, tried everything she could think of to get Leo to return. She begged, pleaded, lied about turning over a new leaf, something Leo saw through easily, and when all else failed, she even resorted to violence. But nothing worked.
Eventually, out of necessity and desperation, she took a quest that she immediately told Leo about. While she thought that Leo would unsummon himself if she was truly in danger, Leo thought it was another one of her tricks, so he did nothing but waited in the ruins. Unfortunately, this time, he was wrong. And if Karen were to die due to his actions, his punishment would be harsh.
"Hey, Angel, can we get this over with?" The brown-skinned man asked in an impatient tone. "I've got a hot date lined up with my lady, Aquarius. And I don't wanna be late."
"Well, you heard the man." The light blue-haired woman, Angel, said with an innocent shrug. "I don't have time to entertain you any longer. Things to do and people to see, and all that."
Once again, Karen could only grit her teeth in fury.
At the same time, Angel's expression turned from playful and mocking to something quite malicious.
"Do it, Scorpio!" Angel shouted with a madness filled smile plastered on her face. "Kill her. Then, I'll retrieve her keys."
"You got it!" The brown-skinned man, Scorpio, a Celestial Spirit, said with a smile. Then, he leaned forward, placing his hands on the ground and raised his tail, pointing its tip at Karen. "Nothing personal, but I gotta do what my contractor wants. [Sand Buster]."
A moment later, a powerful sand tornado, originating from Scorpio's tail, was shot at Karen in a straight line.
Meanwhile, although fear could now be seen in Karen's eyes, her defiant and furious glare was still placed firmly on Angel, who was still smiling like a homicidal lunatic. And because she did not close her eyes at her impending death, she saw the moment that her life was saved.
"*Vroom!* *Screech!*
A moment before the fast-moving sand tornado could engulf her, Karen saw a fancy magic vehicle, one she had certainly seen before, screech to a stop in front of her. Then, she saw the magic vehicle deploy a magic barrier that protected itself and Karen,
"Who are you?" Angel shouted in fury at being interrupted. "How dare you get in my way?"
Paying the screeching woman no mind, Elicia, the driver of the magic vehicle rolled down her window and looked at Karen, who was staring at her in disbelief.
"Well, if it isn't Karen, one of my best customers." Elicia said with a bright smile. However, that smile froze a moment later as she saw the state of Karen's clothes. Then, she began to frown with a dark aura leaking out of her that made Karen flinch. "Karen, why do the clothes I made for you look like that?"
Karen, usually so confident and authoritative in her interactions with others, could display none of those features at the moment. Instead, all she could express was fear. Fear toward the woman in front of her. Even the fear she felt when she knew she was going to die was nothing compared to what she was feeling at the moment.
"I asked you a question, Karen." Elicia asked in an eerily calm tone, that dark aura still leaking out of her.
"It-It-It happened while that woman was trying to steal my Celestial Keys…" Karen stuttered out while she pointed a finger at Angel.
In response, Elicia slowly turned her head toward Angel, who was ordering Scorpio to continuously attack the barrier with a maddened expression on her face.
"So, she's the one who destroyed one of my best works, huh?" Elicia said with her head lowered enough that her bangs covered her eyes. "Hehe… I see. I guess I'll have to punish her for that."