Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Fiore Air Space.
June 3, x785.
Cloaked in violet lightning, Alfonzo was flying at full speed towards the position where Marin's emergency communication originated.
"What the fuck happened?" Alfonzo asked in agitation as he cut through the air at roughly three times the speed of sound. "What kind of trouble could have come from taking a modelling job?"
["Calm down, Alfonzo."] Bedlam said from Alfonzo's inner world. ["At this rate, you won't have any magic power left when you get to her."]
"Yeah, and if I slow down, she might not even be alive when I fucking get there." Alfonzo shot back in a tone filled with irritation.
["That's right, Bedlam, leave him be this time."] Riot growled. ["We'll show whoever it is the price of messing with one of our women!"]
A few minutes ago, Alfonzo received Marin's emergency signal while he was working on the wiring for the first of the training facilities at the Mermaid Heel HQ. And when the signal came through, he actually lost control of his magic power for a moment due to his surge in emotion. As a result, he actually crushed the entire training room into the size of a shoe box with his [Metal Magic]. Luckily, both he and Ritsu were outside of the room when that happened.
After that, Alfonzo told Ritsu that Marin was in danger and he needed to leave, immediately. Then, without giving her a chance to ask about it, he was covered in lightning before flying off at high-speed.
Luckily, Alfonzo had finished everything he needed to do with the room itself. So, all he would have to do is use his [Metal Magic] to return the room to its former state. He would not even need to inscribe the sigils into the walls, ceiling, and floor again.
Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.
At the same time, all the other girls in Alfonzo's harem got Marin's emergency signal, as well. Unfortunately, most of them did not have a way to travel to her location fast enough. However, Erza, with her control over the wind could move fairly quickly. So, she released the seal on her [Soul Armament], Astraia, and rushed off in the direction of Shirotsume.
"Do you think Erza will make it in time?" Sun asked in a worried tone.
"Don't worry, Sun." Elicia said with a forced smile on her face. "She'll definitely make it."
"Yeah, Erza will push herself as hard as it takes." Cana said, though it was evident that she was worried.
"We just have to have faith." Ultear added.
"Besides, I'm sure Alfonzo is on the way, as well." Mirajane chipped in. "And he's a lot faster than Erza, even with her control over the wind."
"Yeah, I guess you're right." Sun replied while praying for Marin's safety.
"So, who do you think would attack Marin?" Mirajane asked with anger bubbling just under the surface.
"It's definitely either the homunculi or the members of Tartaros." Elicia replied while gritting her teeth. "They probably want revenge for the times Fonzie and I ruined their plans."
"We really need to do something about them." Cana growled.
"And we will." Elicia replied in a colder tone than anyone had heard before. "Fonzie already has an idea of where the homunculi hiding. Not sure about Tartaros yet, though."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Ultear asked.
"Because we're not a hundred percent sure of what they are capable of." Elicia replied, though that was not a hundred percent true.
Although Alfonzo and Elicia had a pretty good idea of what to expect from Father and the other homunculi, they were unsure of how to kill them quickly. However, when they find out about the effect that a [Soul Armament] has when it comes in contact with a Philosopher's Stone, that will more than likely change.
The only real concern after that would be finding a way to not collapse all of Crocus during the battle in the cavern under the city.
Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Shirotsume.
Meanwhile, Marin was searching the cityscape in her inner world for the [Soul Armament]. Unfortunately, things were going much slower than she expected. Though she found quite a few of the replicas her [Armament Spirit] told her about, none of them felt right to her.
"This is, like, super hard." Marin complained after discarding another replica of her [Soul Armament]. "How am I supposed to find the real one with all these fakes around? Even worse, they all look exactly the same."
"With that, Marin stopped to think.
"The [Armament Spirit] said that we come from the same source." Marin said as she pondered aloud. "Then, doesn't that mean I should resonate with it, at least a little bit?"
With that thought, Marin closed her eyes and tried searching her surroundings with her senses. She was trying to feel anything that felt similar to her. Unfortunately, this was quite difficult. Especially when you consider that her inner world was part of her as well. However, she noticed that when searching this way, all the [Soul Armament] replicas did not show up in her search.
"I think I'm on to something." Marin muttered as she opened her eyes. "Although this won't lead me to it directly, it will help me exclude a lot of wrong answers."
With that, Marin started running around the cityscape once again. This time with more confidence.
Meanwhile, Marin's [Armament Spirit], who had dispersed into the air, was watching Marin's every movement.
"Good, you're thinking in the right direction, Marin." The [Armament Spirit] said. "But you're running out of time. You have to hurry. If not, I don't want to even imagine how sad Fonzie will be if anything bad happens to you."
Like that, another five minutes passed in Marin's inner world. Though, not even an instant had passed in the real world. And at that moment, Marin finally found what she was looking for. The only issue was that there were two daggers giving off the same feeling.
"What am I supposed to do now?" Marin asked herself while her gaze shifted between the two daggers. "It said I only have one chance. If I pick the wrong one..."
"You're almost out of time." The [Armament Spirit] said, its voice ringing throughout Marin's inner world. "If you take any longer to decide, it will be too late."
Hearing that, Marin gritted her teeth, anxiety visible in her expression. A moment later, however, her expression became resolute.
"Screw it, I'll just trust my instincts." Marin said as she reached out with both hands. "I'd rather regret doing something wrong than regret doing nothing at all."
In the next instant, Marin wrapped her hands around the two daggers' hilts. Then, she found herself back in her body with Lust's nails closing in on her at high-speed.
["Good! Now release my seal."] The [Armament Spirit] shouted as soon as Marin was back in her body.
"[Bend All Creation to My Will, Nova]." Marin chanted.
At the same time, Marin's magic power spiked to five times its normal amount. At the same time, the dagger in her left hand began to glow with incandescent light. On top of that, Marin wrapped the fingers of her right hand around the hilt of a second dagger.
"[Cover]." Marin commanded just before Lust's [Ultimate Spear] could skewer her.
And with that order, the dagger in Marin's immobilized right hand liquified and covered Marin's entire body in a multi-colored, defensive film. At the same time, the glow surrounding Nova also dimmed. As a result, Marin could be seen holding a kodachi with a multi-colored blade in her left hand. On top of that, the flat side, that is common to Japanese-style swords, was replaced with second sharp edge.
*Clang!*
In the next instant, Lust's [Ultimate Spear] finally reached Marin. However, instead of piercing into soft human flesh, it was stopped in its tracks by Marin's new defenses.
"What is that?" Lust asked in a frenzied tone.
At the same time, Lust started swinging her arms with reckless abandon, trying to cut through Marin's defenses, to no avail.
'So, I can completely transform you into whatever I want, huh?' Marin asked internally.
["Within reason."] Nova replied. ["But yes, a lot of the restrictions to your magic have been lifted. For example, if you were to elongate my blades, you wouldn't have to worry about the reduction in density. But you won't be able to increase the overall volume."]
'In other words, the blades would get thinner, but they wouldn't be in danger of breaking, right?' Marin asked in return.
["Right."] Nova replied.
'Alright, then I have an idea.' Marin said.
A moment later, Marin willed the film covering her body to cover only the front of her body. Then, she shaped it into a semi-spherical barrier with a tendril connected to her right index finger.
Meanwhile, Lust had stopped her assault. She had no idea why her [Ultimate Spear], that was said to be able to pierce anything, was unable to pierce this thin material, but since she knew Marin was bleeding heavily from her arm, she decided she would simply wait for the girl to pass out from blood loss.
Unfortunately, Lust had no idea what Nova's released state was capable of.
While Lust was intending to wait Marin out, Marin was also aware of her current condition. So, she wasted no time putting the rest of her plan into motion. Stretching out her left arm, Marin inserted the blade of her other kodachi into the semi-spherical shield in front of her. Instead of causing any ripples or pushing the shield outward, the blade simply fused into the shield, increasing its density slightly.
"[Pierce]." Marin commanded once the kodachi sank into the shield up to the hilt.
In the next instant, dozens of thin spikes extended from the shield. And as the spikes elongated, they got thinner and thinner. Eventually, they were no thicker then pieces of thread.
Despite the size of the incoming attacks, Lust felt danger. So, using her [Ultimate Spear], she did her best to deflect all the threads approaching er. Unfortunately, deflecting so many thin attacks at once was more than she could handle.
As a result, several threads made it through Lust's defenses and burrowed into her body. Feeling the equivalent of several simultaneous pricks from a needle, Lust did her best to cut the threads that entered her body. However, just like Marin's sealed [Soul Armament], she was unable to do so.
On top of that, Lust could feel the thin threads burrowing through her body. And when she realized their destination, the expression on her face quickly turned to fear.
"Stop it!" Lust shouted. "You can't do this!"
"Oh, I can…" Marin replied, feeling herself growing faint. "And I… will…"
With that, the needles converged on Lust's Philosopher's Stone. And like before, the souls within were released on contact. And as more threads made contact with the stone, the speed at which the souls were released increased proportionally.
"No! Ahh~~~~~~~~~~~~!" Lust screamed as she experienced pain the likes of which she had never experienced in the hundreds of years she had been alive.
After a few seconds, the area, which had been filled with Lust's pain-filled screaming, fell silent. Meanwhile, Lust, who now looked completely haggard, could only glare at Marin with unwillingness in her eyes.
"Usually, I would applaud anyone who could kill me for their ruthlessness…" Lust said weakly. "But I can't bring myself to do so with you. To think I would lose my life to someone so beautiful. It disgusts me. I should be this world's most beautiful being…"
As she spoke, Lust's body, starting at her feet, broke down into dust that was blown away with the breeze. Eventually, she was no more, leaving a dim Philosopher's stone behind that seemed to evaporate as soon as it came in contact with the air.
As soon as Lust was gone, Nova's release was cancelled and the amorphous object returned to being a pair of multi-colored kodachi in Marin's hands.
"I did… it…" Marin muttered as she lost consciousness.
With that, Marin collapsed, falling forward. However, before she could hit the ground, she was caught gently.
"How the fuck did she do that?" Alfonzo asked while adjusting his hold on Marin and picking her up in a princess carry.
["Now's not the time to think about that."] Bedlam said solemnly. ["Look at the cloth wrapped around her arm. It's soaked in blood. There must be a severed artery, or something."]
"Right." Alfonzo replied as he was once again covered in arcs of violet electricity. "I'll think about that later. For now, I need to get Marin to Tsunade."
A moment later, Alfonzo had vanished from where he stood with Marin cradled in his arms.
In order to not worsen Marin's injuries because of the wind pressure while moving at top speed, he made sure to create a then wind shield made of adamantine. So thin, in fact, that Alfonzo could see through it.
In his haste, however, Alfonzo forgot to disable the emergency beacon. As a result, Erza continued to rush towards it. And Alfonzo would not remember the existence of the beacon until Erza had caused a commotion at Mermaid Heel's HQ.