Chapter 357: Etherious and Homunculi
Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Crocus.
May 12, x785.
Despite the fact that Alfonzo raised the adamantine barrier around the execution platform, everyone in the area felt the effect of the explosion. The sound alone was enough to leave most of the people present in pain. ON top of that, everyone felt the ground shaking beneath their feet, too.
Luckily, the barrier stopped the explosion from affecting the area even more. Otherwise, the shockwave would have heavily damaged many structures surrounding the execution grounds. Not to mention, most of the onlookers, who were only normal civilians, would have been killed, as well.
"What… just happened?" Toma asked in a tone mixed with shock and fear.
Before anyone could respond, however, everyone's attention was drawn to the figure that jumped out of the smoke cloud caused by the explosion and over the adamantine wall surrounding it.
Looking more closely, everyone saw that the figure belonged to the young blond man who interrupted Bradley's speech a few moments ago. On top of that, he was carrying Crawford Seam over his shoulder.
"Tch!" Not a single one of those insects died." The young blond man said while looking back at the gathered crowd. "If I didn't have orders to secure this meat bag, I would definitely remedy that."
"Not so fast!" Alfonzo shouted with his right arm covered in arcs of blue electricity.
Looking back, the young blond man only sneered. Thinking that he would be able to dodge whatever it was that Alfonzo threw at him. And at worst, he would just cause another explosion to block it.
"Go ahead. Give it a try." The young blond man said as his feet finally touched the ground. "Not that it will do you any good."
Instead of firing his electrical discharge immediately, Alfonzo smirked. Then, the young blond man's expression changed as Crawford Seam was yanked out of his grasp and thrown high up into the air.
"Huh? Ahh~~~~~~~~~~~!" Crawford Seam shouted in horror.
"Damn it!" The young blond man exclaimed angrily as he noticed Alfonzo aim his electrically charged right arm upwards at Crawford Seam. "I'll kill you!"
Ignoring the young blond man's shouting. As well as the fact that he was charging at him with fury, Alfonzo created an orichalcum bullet in front of his right hand with his [Metal Magic]. Then, he tapped it with his index finger.
"[Electromagnetism Magic: Railgun]." Alfonzo chanted, his chant ending just as his finger met the orichalcum bullet.
In the next instant, a superheated streak of air connected Alfonzo's finger and Crawford Seam's chest. However, the streak did not stop there. Instead, after evaporating a large chunk of Crawford Seam's chest, it continued into the sky, past the clouds.
As a result, Crawford Seam's lifeless body flew a bit higher thanks to the force of the impact. Then, it was brought back down due to gravity. Meanwhile, the blond young man had finally arrived in front of Alfonzo.
"Die!" The blond young man shouted as he reached out to grab Alfonzo's face with his right hand covered in black markings.
"No Thanks." Alfonzo replied as he raised his left arm to block.
Seeing that, the young blond man sneered viciously. And that sneer did not change when a round metal shield with alternating blue and red circles, as well as a white star at its center appeared on Alfonzo's arm.
"Do you really think such a flimsy, little shield will protect you from my curse?" The blond man asked with a manic and sadistic smile on his face. [Explosive]."
*Boom~~~~~~~~~!*
As the young blond man chanted his curse, his hand came in contact with Alfonzo's shield. In the next instant, a second large explosion rocked the area. However, like before, an adamantine barrier popped up, surrounding the explosion.
"Argh! What the hell?" The young blond man's pain-filled shout could be heard from inside the barrier.
*Bang!*
"Gah!"
Following the shout of pain, the sound of something slamming into the adamantine barrier, followed by the sound of someone expelling all the air in their lungs could be heard. A moment later, both adamantine barriers were brought down.
"You said something about a curse, huh?" Alfonzo said, lowering the shield that had grown to cover his whole body. "I guess that makes you an Etherious. One of Zeref's artificial demons, huh? Does that mean you're part of his bookshelf, too? A member of Tartarus?"
By now, with the exception of the knights, who stayed to ensure the three ruler's escape, all the people present for the execution were gone. Naturally, the only exceptions were Alfonzo and Elicia.
"Aren't you well informed." The young blond man asked as he stood up from the ground with his right arm dangling limply. "That's right, I'm a member of Tartarus. More specifically, one of the Nine Demon Gates, Jackal. Not that knowing that will make a difference. You're going to die here, after all."
'This stuff really is Vibranium.' Alfonzo thought with glee as he dispelled his shield. 'He broke his own arm when the kinetic energy from his explosion was redirected back at him.'
["Yeah, we already confirmed that, didn't we?"] Bedlam asked while rolling his eyes.
["Stop complaining!"] Riot shouted. ["That was fucking bad ass."]
"So, you're one of those artificial demons, are you?" A voice said from the crater that was left behind by the first explosion. "It would seem that even you are getting in the way of our plans and must be eliminated."
With those words, Commander King Bradley stepped out of the crater. However, he was not alone. Walking next to him was a man with no hair on the top of his head, white hair around the sides and back of his head, narrow black eyes, and a long white beard and mustache. On top of that, his facial features were quite similar to Org's. However, he appeared to be much younger.
"I really don't understand how this old man could wear a beard like this" The man with similar facial features to Org said.
"He was a fool who thought himself more important than the other humans on this planet." Bradley replied without looking back. "But that's not really important, Greed. If you don't like it, just cut it off later."
"Yeah, I know." The Man who looked a lot like Org, or rather Greed, replied.
"So, you're one of them, too. A homunculus, that is." Alfonzo said as he glanced at Bradley and Greed. "And it looks like you turned Org into one as well."
"Now you definitely cannot be allowed to leave this place alive." Bradley replied. "You know entirely too much."
"Like any of you could stop me from leaving if I really wanted to." Alfonzo replied with a smirk.
"Indeed." Bradley replied. "Stopping you may be difficult, but what about if we have her as a hostage."
As soon as he finished speaking, Bradley removed the patch on his eye, revealing an eye with an ouroboros symbol replacing the pupil and iris. Then, he snapped his head in a certain direction while simultaneously throwing a dagger.
*Clank!*
However, before the dagger could get very far, it stopped in mid-air., before falling to the ground, harmlessly
"You didn't really think that would work with me here, did you?" Alfonzo asked while looking at Bradley like he was an idiot.
In response, Bradley could only grit his teeth in frustration.
"*Whistle* That was pretty cool." Greed commented with a whistle. "You can control metal or something like that, yeah? I bet that magic comes in pretty useful."
"Yeah, it's pretty good." Alfonzo replied with a shrug.
Meanwhile, Jackal's anger was rising at the fact that he had been completely ignored.
"How dare you worthless humans ignore me!" Jackal shouted as the temperature around him began to rise sharply. "I'll let this whole city feel the effects of my [Bomb Curse]. Then, you'll know just how insignificant you are!"
Like most Etherious, Jackal does not use magic. Instead, he implements curses, which all Etherious claim are far superior to magic. In Jackal's case, he uses what is called a [Bomb Curse], giving him the ability to create heat based explosions at close range through physical contact or at long range with hand gestures.
"I've been waiting for this." Elicia's voice rang out, though she could not be seen. "[Thread Magic: Vibranium Thread Cocoon]."
In the next instant, a dome of Vibranium threads was constructed around Jackal just a moment before his explosion was triggered. AS a result, the city-sized explosion, with Jackal at its center, was trapped inside the dome. On top of that, Elicia was shrinking the dome as time went by.
"Damn, that's gotta hurt." Alfonzo muttered as he watched Elicia's [Thread Cocoon] turn red from the high temperature. "I couldn't imagine being trapped in there with all those shockwaves bouncing back and forth."
A moment later, All the threads contracted.
"[Thread Magic: Thread Slicer]." Elicia chanted.
Then, at the center of the dome, where the threads converged, blood, chunks of flesh, and minced bone fragments exploded outwards as the threads passed through Jackal's body.
"*Whistle* That was pretty brutal." Greed commented once again.
"Be silent, Greed." Bradley said sternly.
"Fine… Whatever you say." Greed replied with a shrug.
"So, what's the move, Bradley?" Alfonzo asked. "Though, letting you escape isn't an option. The question is are we doing this the easy way or the hard way?"
"Do you really think you can kill me before my reinforcements arrive?" Bradley asked as he drew a pair of swords from his waist.
"Actually, I do." Alfonzo replied with a smile.
A moment later, Alfonzo's entire body was covered by arcs of blue electricity. Then, he vanished from where he stood before reappearing right in front of Bradley, kneeling on one knee, with his tonfa slammed into the old man's abdomen.
"Gah!" Bradley grunted as he was forced to bend at the waist while coughing out a mouthful of blood.
Despite that, Bradley swung his swords down at Alfonzo's back. However, just as they were about to cut into Alfonzo's flesh, they came to a sudden stop.
"Like I said, that won't work." Alfonzo said.
"Then, what about this?" Greed asked as he clawed at Alfonzo while his arms and hands turned pitch black.
"Rearranging the carbon atoms in your body to make them both harder and more dense, huh?" Alfonzo commented while glancing towards Greed. "Impressive, but not something to worry about."
At that moment, Greed's attack was also stopped. Though, it was because his arms were wrapped with a large number of threads.
"Sneak attacks are not allowed." Elicia said as she showed herself with the threads wrapped around Greed's arms connected to her fingertips. "You should take a step back and wait your turn."
With that, Elicia turned around. And as she did, she whipped her arms over her head. As a result, Greed was lifted from the ground, flung through the air, and slammed into the ground with force.
"Thanks, Lici." Alfonzo said with a smile.
Then, with his tonfa still in contact with Bradley's abdomen, Alfonzo channeled high voltage electricity into Bradley's body, rendering him immobile.
"[Run Wild with Destruction on your Fingertips. Usher in Pandemonium with Creation in Your Hands. Riot, Bedlam]." Alfonzo chanted as his magic power surged and his tonfa melted down before covering his hands and forearms.
In the next instant, Alfonzo slammed his palms into Bradley's abdomen. Then, on contact, Bradley was encased in Adamantine. At the same time, Alfonzo lifted Bradley over his head with a large amount of electricity arcing on his arms.
"[Electromagnetism Magic: Linear Cannon]." Alfonzo chanted as he launched Bradley straight upwards.
*Boom~~~~~!*
At the same time, the sound barrier was broken several times over as a line of superheated air connected Alfonzo's hands to the sky.
"*Phew* Hopefully that will be enough to get him into orbit." Alfonzo said as he stood and dispelled his [Soul Armament's] release. "I just hope the adamantine I encased him in was thick enough to endure the high temperatures."
["It should be fine."] Bedlam replied. "It was like four inches thick, after all."]
'I hope so.' Alfonzo replied mentally.
"Umm… Fonzie… We have a problem." Elicia said in a nervous tone.
"Huh? What's wrong, Lici?" Alfonzo asked as he started walking towards Elicia.
When he arrived, he saw a hole in the ground. On top of that, Elicia was reeling in some recently ripped threads.
"Well, when I slammed him into the ground, I didn't expect him to raise the density of his body by so much that he went straight through it." Elicia said with a wry smile. "On top of that, since he was made from a wizard, he had the ability to use magic. And that's how this happened."
As Elicia spoke the last part, she showed Alfonzo the end of her threads.
In fact, Greed, after being slammed through the ground, ended up in Crocus' sewer system. Then, when he was no longer in sight, he activated the magic power he inherited from Org's body, using it to manipulate his carbon atoms even further and create sharp blades on his arms, which he used to cut through Elicia's threads.
"Yeah, I felt the magic fluctuations, too." Alfonzo said with a slight frown. "This one could be troublesome. Let's just hope he has the same traits as the Greed from the canon. And if he does, he'll break away from Father's control soon enough."
With that said, Alfonzo and Elicia looked around what used to be the execution grounds. Seeing the charred ground, the three crater's caused by Jackal's explosions, Crawford Seam's mangled corpse, the blood and gore that used to be jackal, and a hole in the ground that led to the sewers, Alfonzo could not help but smile wryly.
"I wonder if this counts as us causing damage to public property?" Alfonzo asked.
"Well, considering we only caused that hole…" Elicia replied.
"You caused that hole." Alfonzo interrupted.
"… over there, I think they'll let us off for this, right?" Elicia continued, unbothered by Alfonzo's interruption. "Either way, we need to report what happened to the kingdom, the council, and the guild."
"*Sigh* I know." Alfonzo replied in exasperation. "Well, let's go."
As he spoke, Alfonzo created a metal coffin around Crawford Seam's body before he and Elicia, while bringing the coffin along, made their way towards Mercurius, the Royal Castle, to report to the king of Fiore.
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