Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.
August 12, x790.
After releasing Riot and Bedlam, Alfonzo cranked up the output of his [Lightning Enhancement] spell to the new limit that he could handle. Then, with the eyes of the four Paths of Pain focused on him, he vanished from sight, his speed so great that even the incredible ocular prowess of the Rinnegan could not track his movements.
In the next instant, all four Paths of Pain fell lifelessly to the ground, each with a different injury that incapacitated the corpse puppets. First, the Azura Path, who could transform its body and create all sorts of weapons, was completely dismantled and heavily electrocuted. Next, the Preta Path, there was a fist sized hole in its torso where its heart would be. Lastly, both the Human and Animal Paths were decapitated. Though, it was clear their heads were ripped off rather than sliced off with a blade.
An instant later, Alfonzo appeared outside of the Paths of Pain's encirclement walking towards the direction where he sensed Nagato's presence.
"*Sigh* I thought I could handle that without releasing the two of you." Alfonzo said as he continued to walk. "But getting around their shared vision was harder than I thought."
["I don't know why you didn't use us from the very beginning."] Riot snarled. ["Instead, you just wasted time playing with those puppets."]
"Yeah, yeah, I know." Alfonzo replied. "I could have dealt with all of them in under a minute if I had used you two from the beginning. But if I had done that, the others wouldn't have been able to blow off steam."
["And dealing with all those destructive women would have been a hassle if they didn't get to stretch their legs."] Bedlam added. ["Could you imagine how much more damage they would have caused on quests if they didn't get all that pent up aggression out of their system?"]
"Especially Mira." Alfonzo continued. "That dick rider attacked the pace where our baby girl was taking a nap. And since I was going to handle him, I needed to let her do something. Otherwise, the She-Devil would have made a huge mess of whatever town her next quest took place in."
["And?"] Riot asked, clearly unconcerned with the consequences of such an action.
"Well, if Ur or Gramps were still the guild master, I probably wouldn't have cared." Alfonzo replied with a shrug. "But Master Mavis basically saved me from becoming the next guild master. So, I'd rather not have the girls causing her any more trouble than necessary."
Reaching that point, Alfonzo turned to look in the direction where Ur faced off against Kisame. Then, he smiled wryly.
"But what Ur does has nothing to do with me." Alfonzo added with yet another shrug. "She's a grown woman, she can deal with her own fuck ups."
Riot and Bedlam only nodded in response to that.
["Anyway, you should get going."] Riot said impatiently. ["Lici's still fighting Konan. We should go help her."]
["Simp."] Bedlam said casually before ignoring Riot's snarling response.
"Well, I guess I'll go see how Lici's doing." Alfonzo said casually. "They're on the way, anyway. Besides, it's not like Konan could really hurt Lici. And I doubt she'd have the time to set up that big Paper Bomb move she used in the anime. Plus, if Lici uses her first mission reward, this should be a cake walk."
["It's almost been two years since she got that ability."] Bedlam said with a hint of both amusement and interest in his tone. ["But she's never had to use it in a real fight yet, has she? This might be fun to see."]
["Ha! And that blue-haired broad will never even be able to see what hit her."] Riot said excitedly. ["And that's why Lici is the best!"]
While Alfonzo only smiled and shook his head at Riot's shout, Bedlam rolled his eyes, trying his best to not blurt out his favorite descriptor of Riot again. Then, in order to not miss Elicia when she finally dealt with Konan, he picked up the pace.
Meanwhile, Elicia and Konan had stopped moving towards Nagato's hiding place. Instead, they were weaving between each other's attacks with expert precision.
"[Paper-Style: Dance of the Shikigami]." Konan chanted after running through a string of hand signs.
In the next instant, Konan's entire body and clothing lost their color, turning into sheets of paper. Then, the innumerable number of sheets of paper dispersed. As they did, they began folding themselves into new shapes.
A moment later, Elicia found herself standing amidst a number of paper butterflies, paper spears, and other objects made from paper. On top of that, there were several clones of Konan standing and floating in the array.
"There's no way her body can break down into this many sheets of paper." Elicia grumbled as she turned her head back and forth to take in everything surrounding her. "I mean, she's shorter than I am, she looks like she can't way more than a hundred pounds, and she's so slender. She barely has any boobs or butt, at all. Where did all the mass come from?"
If Elicia had been paying attention, she would have felt a wave of irritation radiating from all the paper constructs after she made that comment about Konan having no… assets. But she was too caught up in figuring out where all the paper that made the paper constructs that were surrounding her to notice.
["Is this really the time to be thinking about that?"] Scylla asked in an exasperated tone. ["Instead, you should think about how to get out of this without your outfit being ruined, right?"]
Immediately, Elicia's annoyed expression disappeared. Instead, her eyes narrowed, and she lowered her posture, looking like she was finally taking this fight seriously.
"That's right." Elicia said solemnly. "Although this isn't the outfit I was gonna wear for Mar'e's party, it's one of my better pieces of work over the last month. I needed them to think we were really having the party and not waiting for the Akatsuki to show up, after all."
["*Sigh* And now you're giving the game away."] Scylla said, sounding even more exasperated with Elicia's tendency to speak before thinking than usual. ["Then again, I guess it doesn't matter. Akatsuki won't exist after today, anyway."]
While Scylla was commenting on Elicia's usual habit, all the paper constructs began to shiver. Then, one of the paper clones, while regaining its color, stepped forward with a worried expression on her face.
"What did you mean by that?" Konan asked sharply, though the light trembling in her voice made it clear that she was shaken by the implications of Elicia's words.
"Oops!" Elicia mumbled, though her expression did not change. "I forgot that was supposed to be a secret."
"Answer me!" Konan ordered.
"No, I don't think I will." Elicia replied.
"Then, I'll just force the information I want out of you." Konan shot back.
With that said, Konan waved her hand in Elicia's direction. Then, all the paper constructs started to move. First, it was the countless number of butterflies that swarmed her. And all though they had no offensive capabilities, they did block Elicia's line of sight.
After that, a number of spears, shuriken, and kunai made of paper were launched at Elicia. Yet, Elicia did not move to dodge. Instead, a large amount of thread was ejected from all over her body. Then, she started to spin in place at high-speed.
"[Thread Magic: Loosening Spool]." Elicia chanted calmly.
*Shred!*
Over the next three or four seconds, all of the paper Konan sent to attack Elicia, along with the butterflies meant to disorient her, were shredded by Elicia's threads. Yet, Elicia was not done with just that.
"[Thread Magic: Lashing Threads]." Elicia chanted.
Coming out of her spin, Elicia moved gracefully as she put her practice with Capoeira on full display. And with every strike, she either knocked down a paper construct with her body and threads. Or she would wrap her extended threads around constructs and tear them apart.
Meanwhile, Konan continued to expend magic power to keep the size of the encirclement constant. However, it was clear to anyone watching that she was expending much more magic power than Elicia was. So, in a battle of attrition like this one, she would run out of steam before the Fairy Tail wizard did.
'Defeating her is not my top priority.' Konan thought to herself with her eyebrows furrowed. 'I need to get to Nagato and get him out of here before the other Fairy Tail wizards find him, or he does something to shorten his lifespan even further.'
"[Thread Magic: Sticky Thread Shot]." Elicia chanted as she swung her arms in Konan's direction.
Reacting quickly, Konan was pulled out of her thoughts just in time to barely dodge a fist-sized ball of thread.
*Thwack!*
A moment later, however, she heard the sound of the thread ball striking something. When she looked back, she saw a large rock with cracks all over its surface. On top of that, the ball had spread out into what looked like a spider web. Even more than that, the threads were sticking to the rock, instead of sliding off and falling to the ground.
"A spell like that would have even been able to incapacitate me." Konan muttered as she turned back to Elicia with more caution in her gaze. "Though, not for long. I still would have been able to slip between the gaps in the threads with my [Dance of the Shikigami. Still, I'm not sure I would have had enough time to do so. I have to be more careful."
"Tch! Her instincts are too sharp." Elicia said while clicking her tongue in annoyance. "I guess I'm really gonna have to use that."
["You should have used it from the start."] Scylla replied while rolling her eyes. ["If you had, this would have been over after the first time you kicked her."]
"Yeah, I know." Elicia replied. "But that power doesn't really belong in this world. So, I didn't wanna use it."
["That's never stopped you when you went to other worlds, though."] Scylla shot back.
"Whatever… It's time to end this." Elicia said with a pout.
In the next instant, though, only Elicia could see it, her hands and arms, starting from her fingertips, slowly turned black. The complete blackening of her skin only stopping when it reached her elbows. Then, the same happened to her feet and legs, stopping at her knees.
On top of that, the colorful threads that were extending from those parts of Elicia's body also took on a blackened hue. And with that, Elicia's onslaught on the paper constructs intensified. And if one were paying attention to Konan's expression, every time the blackened threads or parts of Elicia's body struck her constructs, she would twitch minutely.
'What's going on?' Konan asked herself in confusion. 'Why does it hurt every time she hits my paper? On top of that, my head is starting to throb, too.'
To answer Konan's question, it was previously mentioned that Alfonzo and Elicia welcomed guests from another world last year after Amar'e's second birthday party. And that's not to say another world within this universe, as these guests did not come from Edolas.
However, what was not mentioned was that Alfonzo and Elicia also had the ability to travel to different worlds. {A/N: Check out my other fic, Songs in the Void: A Multiversal Score, for more details.} And during one of those trips, Elicia was granted a new ability, one that did not belong to this world, as she said.
And this ability, known as [Armament Haki], allowed the user to coat their bodies in their spiritual energy to harden it, like wearing a suit of armor, increasing the power of their strikes and defenses. And in this world, and a few others, it had an added effect of corrupting an opponent's energy with the user's spiritual energy, thus the reason for Konan's growing headache.
Not understanding the reason for the pain she was feeling, Konan did realize that it had something to do with Elicia. So, instead of continuing to send her constructs to clash with Elicia directly, she used them ore as a distraction so that she could aim for more precise strikes.
Unfortunately for Konan, Elicia was waiting for just that. As soon as the pressure on her lightened, Elicia burst forward, dancing between the paper constructs while striking those that she could not dodge past.
Seeing Elicia rushing towards her, Konan's eyes widened slightly. Then, like what happened when she avoided Elicia's first sneak attack, a pair of paper wings sprouted from her back. She then flapped them hard, sending herself into the sky, intending to keep her distance.
"Not this time." Elicia said as she cast more [Sticky Thread Shots].
To Konan's credit, with acrobatic, aerial maneuvers, she avoided nearly all of Elicia's threads. However, she was caught off guard when one of the shots unraveled midair, entangling her right wing.
Even so, she reacted quickly, discarding the wing before creating another one as she fell. Still, that short distraction was enough for Elicia.
"This is the end." Elicia said, appearing above Konan while her new wing formed.
*Bang!*
*Boom!*
Then, with her [Armament Haki] clad right foot, Elicia brought down a powerful axe kick, that when it landed, disrupted Konan's magic power, enabling her to be hit without turning into sheets of paper.
As a result, Konan was sent hurdling towards the ground. Upon impact, a crater was created below her, and a small dust cloud was kicked up, as well.
At the same time, Elicia, fired a number of [Sticky Thread Shots] into the dust cloud, dispersing it, to make sure that Konan could not slip away. She then dispelled her [Armament Haki] while using her threads to lower herself to the ground.
When Elicia landed at the edge of the crater, she could see that Konan had not lost consciousness. Though, she was completely un able to move, as she was covered from head to toe in Elicia's sticky Threads. Luckily, Elicia's ability to manipulate her threads made it so that she did not have to worry about suffocating under the large number of threads.
"Not bad, Lici."
Hearing that voice, Konan's expression was filled with fear. Meanwhile, Elicia's brightened considerably. Elicia then turned around and threw herself at the source of the voice.
And just as she expected, Alfonzo was there to catch her before spinning a few times to bleed off the momentum of her leap.
"I know you're excited after using it in a real fight, Lici." Alfonzo said before Elicia could undoubtedly ask what he thought about her use of [Armament Haki]. "But we need to bring this little attack to an end. I wanna go see if Amar'e, Bianca, and Calvin are okay after that loud noise."
Hearing that, Elicia's excited expression turned solemn once again. Then, she nodded her head as she jumped off of Alfonzo. At the same time, Alfonzo materialized a set of anti-magic restraints directly onto Konan's wrists and ankles.
Then, Elicia manipulated her threads, unsticking Konan from the bottom of the crater. Then, she shot another set of threads to connect to the cocoon she just made so that she could drag Konan along as she and Alfonzo made their way to Nagato's hiding spot.