Chapter 272: Happy and Carla, Kidnapped
Edolas, Edolas Continent, Royal Capital.
November, x784.
"Where are we?" Marin asked as she looked around at the stunned citizens of the Royal Capital.
"I'm not sure." Erza replied while doing the same as Marin. "But I'm sure we're not in Magnolia anymore."
Meanwhile, the citizens of the Royal Capital finally came out of their dazes.
"Is that Captain Knightwalker?" A man in the crowd asked in a confused tone.
"It looks like it." Another man replied. "But why is she standing with a member of Fairy Tail? Did she bring her here to be executed?"
"No, that woman should be Marin Sherry, she was killed last year, wasn't she?'
"Marin Sherry?" Marin asked, even more confused after hearing the crowd's chattering. Then, she turned to Erza as she continued. "And who is Captain Knightwalker? Are they talking about you?"
"I... don't know." Erza replied. A moment later, however, she finally noticed Elicia and Gajeel and pointed in their direction. "But I think they should know."
Following the direction of Erza's finger, Marin's eyes lit up when she saw Elicia and Gajeel as well.
"We don't' have time to explain." Elicia said as she and Gajeel approached the two confused young women. "For now, just follow us."
"Stop right there!" A soldier shouted as two platoons finally reached the plaza from either side. "You will be questioned about the disappearance of the lacrima. And as for the two of you, you have been sentenced to death by His Majesty. Do not resist."
"Like hell we're just gonna let you kill us!" Gajeel shouted.
"[Fire Dragon's Roar]."
"Sky Dragon's Roar]."
Before the soldiers could get too close, a torrent of flames and a violently spinning cyclone of wind cut off the approaching soldiers.
"That's our cue." Elicia said as she wrapped her threads around Erza, Marin, and Gajeel.
Before she could activate her [Hiding in Plain Sight] spell, however, Elicia turned to her right with her hands raised.
"[Thread Magic: Spiral Lock]." Elicia chanted.
A moment later, numerous threads were ejected from Elicia's fingertips before they wrapped around the shaft of an incoming spear with four, jagged, perpendicular spearheads whose tips curved inwards that was thrust at the center of her throat. Then, just as the threads tightened, the spear came to a stop less than an inch (2.54 cm) away from her skin.
"Erza Knightwalker, I presume." Elicia said with a smile after stopping the spear. "This is the second time you almost stabbed me with your spear, you know."
Frowning at the words of the woman in front of her, the Edolas Erza took a good, long look at her face. Then, she asked a question in a tone mixed with surprise, confusion, and anger.
"You, how are you still alive?' Erza Knightwalker, the wielder of the spear, shouted after seeing Elicia's face. "I watched you die with that criminal, Alfonzo Dentis, in your arms. Wait! That feeling of being watched back in the black market, it was you?"
"Another Erza?" Marin exclaimed in confusion. "Alfonzo Dentis? What in the world is she talking about? I'm, like, super confused right now."
"We can talk about that later." Erza said as she [Requipped a longsword into her hands. "For now, this woman needs to pay for attacking a member of our family."
In the next instant, Erza dashed forward. Then, as soon as she was in range, she swung her sword at her Edolas counterpart from above.
Reacting quickly, Erza Knightwalker twisted her spear. And although she was unable to break Elicia's threads, she did manage to reposition her spear to block Erza's incoming slash.
*Clang!*
To the Edolas Erza's surprise, her Earth Land counterpart's physical strength was much greater than her own. So, as a result of blocking Erza's slash without the adequate preparations, she was force back with great force. At the same time, Elicia dispelled her threads, allowing the Edolas Erza to be sent flying towards the torrent of flames created by Natsu's [Fire Dragon's Roar].
"Alright, let's get moving." Elicia said, turning back to the other three. "Although we're probably stronger than anyone in this kingdom, we can't fight an entire army alone. "Well, not right now, anyway."
"Indeed." Erza replied as she unsummoned her longsword. "And we don't' have enough information about the situation."
"Don't worry, we'll get you up to speed as soon as we get out of here." Elicia said with a smile.
"I hope so." Marin said, the confusion she was feeling written all over her face.
As they spoke, Elicia finally cast her [Hiding in Plain Sight] spell, causing the group of four wizards to disappear from everyone's sight.
"No! You're not getting away!" The Edolas Erza shouted as she reeled her spear, Ten Commandments, back before hurling it at the spot where she last saw Elicia, Erza, Marin, and Gajeel.
Seeing the incoming spear, Erza was ready to summon another sword to deflect it. Before she could, however, Elicia placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her.
"We're not alone here." Elicia said with a smile.
At the same time, the Edolas Erza's spear stopped midflight before it changed direction and flew towards the soldiers that were approaching from the opposite side.
"Captain Knightwalker, why?" A soldier asked after catching sight of the spear flying in his platoon's direction.
*Boom!*
A moment later, as the spear landed among the soldiers, an explosion was triggered, blowing away a number of soldiers.
Meanwhile, Elicia shot her threads towards the top of a nearby building. Then, once she made sure they were stuck to the roof, she reeled herself, Erza, Marin, and Gajeel up to the rooftop.
"Alright, follow me." Elicia said as she started dashing in a certain direction. "One of our allies should have prepared a safe place for us to rest and get the two of you up to speed."
"Was that Alfonzo who stopped the spear back there?' Marin asked as she ran alongside Elicia.
"Who else do you know that can control metal objects like that." Gajeel asked.
"And it's a good thing he did." Erza added. "Had I deflected it like I intended, the following explosion would have done quite a bit of damage."
"Yeah..." Marin said, remembering the explosion among the soldiers. "That would have been bad."
"Less talking, more running." Gajeel reprimanded. "Still, I don't understand why we didn't just attack the king and take him hostage."
"Because the other three Captains were in the castle behind the king. More specifically Panther Lily." Elicia replied. "And I'm not sure my [Camouflage Magic would have worked against his senses."
Hearing that, the other three were surprised. It was a fact that Elicia's [Camouflage Magic] could only be seen through by someone with significantly better magic detection than her, like Alfonzo, or someone with extremely sharp instincts, like Erza Knightwalker. Even the Earth Land Erza was unable to see through it. Though, that was probably due to the fact that she would never sense any hostility from Elicia while she was camouflaged.
Knowing about Panther Lily from his Edolas counterpart, Gajeel could not help but look back at the castle. And when he did, his eyes lit up when he saw a human sized Exceed standing next to King Faust while overlooking the situation.
'I'm definitely gonna make you my cat.' Gajeel thought to himself excitedly. 'Just wait for me to come back.'
While Alfonzo, Elicia, Natsu, Lucy, Gajeel, and Wendy, were working together to free Erza and Marin who were stuck in the lacrima fragment, Happy and Carla were seated on a nearby rooftop watching the situation.
Because no one other than Panther Lily, the Captain of the First Magic War Division, had any magic power in their bodies, [Magic Power Detection] was not as effective at detecting any possible sneak attacks. Therefore, Happy and Carla were tasked with keeping an eye on everything.
"Okay, Happy, let's get going." Carla said, not even looking in Happy's direction. "Everything went just as planned."
"Yeah, let's go." happy replied.
With that, both Exceed ran across the rooftop they had been watching the situation from in the direction of the meet up location. Before they could climb down from the rooftop, however, a dozen flying cats, Exceed, descended towards the rooftop.
"Halt!" The leader of the flying Exceed ordered as he descended in front of Happy and Carla. "By the decree of the Goddess, Queen Shagotte of Extalia, the two of you are to return with us to Extalia where you will be cleansed of the foul perfume of the humans."
"And why should we listen to you?" Happy asked, stepping protectively in front of Carla.
Although both Happy and Carla found it strange that this Exceed's face so closely resembled that of Blue Pegasus' S-Class wizard, Ichiya Vandalay Kotobuki, the difference being the whiskers and cat ears on the top of his head, as well as the tuft of bright orange, wavy fur that formed a bang over the right side of his forehead, neither of them were in a position to give it much thought.
"And what part of that sentence made you think I was making a request?" The leader of the Exceed asked while narrowing his eyes. "The Queen's orders are absolute. And I, Nichiya, Captain of the Extalia army, will follow them to the letter, even if I have to use force."
"Bring it on!" Happy shouted indignantly.
"As you wish." The leader of the Exceed forces, Nichiya replied. "Restrain them."
A moment later, the dozen other Exceed approached Happy and Carla at high speed. Although Happy tried to fight them off, the twelve Exceed were trained soldiers. And although Happy was a Fairy Tail wizard, he spent very little, if any, time training his combat skills.
Meanwhile, like Happy, Carla had not spent much time training in combat either. Unlike Happy, however, she did not spend any energy resisting. Especially after seeing those visions, she knew that she, along with all the other Exceed that found their way to Earth Land, were sent by the Queen Nichiya mentioned.
"Let go of her!" happy shouted when he noticed that there were two soldiers holding Carla in place.
"Happy, please stop." Carla said in a downcast tone. "They won't---."
"That's enough from you." Nichiya said, cutting Carla off.
*Bang!*
In the next instant, Nichiya struck Happy in the back of his head, rendering the young Exceed unconscious.
"Happy! No!" Carla shouted.
"Alright, let us return to her majesty's side." Nichiya said, not paying any attention to Carla's shouting. Before the Exceeds took Hapy and Carla from the roof top, however, Nichiya's nose began to twitch before he started sniffing the air. "That perfume... It's quite familiar."
As he continued sniffing the air, Nichiya made his way over to Carla. And Carla, who had met Ichiya less than a month ago, could not help but remember the way he acted.
"Your perfume..." Nichiya said as he sniffed Carla from a close distance. "It smells a lot like Her Majesty's. How curious. No, there is time to ponder that later. Let us return!"
With his declaration, Nichiya took the lead, flying away from the rooftop as he and the other soldiers of Extalia's army brought Carla and the unconscious Happy to the floating island of Extalia."
Half an hour later, Alfonzo, Elicia, Natsu, Lucy, Gajeel, and Wendy all met up outside a rundown house in the slums of the Royal Capital. As it turned out, this house was owned by the Edolas Gajeel. Though it was not mentioned previously, the Edolas Gajeel was a reporter. And he often found himself at odds with the royal family due to his passion for his craft. There were more than a few times where he was hunted down for spreading news that the royal family did not want the public to know.
To the Edolas Gajeel's credit, he was never once caught. And this rundown house was the reason. Because the royal family was never able to catch him, however, they ended up giving up on pursuing him. In return, they tarnished his reputation with the other citizens of the Royal Capital. As a result, the Edolas Gajeel was not well liked among the other citizens.
"Where are they?" Natsu asked in an agitated tone. Hapy and Carla should have been here at least ten minutes ago."
Natsu was not the only one who was worried. Wendy was just as worried about Carla as Natsu was about Happy. She was much less vocal about it, though.
"Calm down, Natsu." Alfonzo said calmly. "They were taken away by other Exceeds. So, I don't think they're in any danger."
"You saw them get taken away and you didn't do anything about it?" Natsu asked in a disbelieving tone. "Why?"
"Because I thought it would be good for them." Alfonzo replied casually. "Remember, they are originally from Edolas, Extalia to be exact. So, wouldn't it be good for them to have a chance to go home? Maybe, they'll even figure out how to fly again. And when they do, they'll definitely come back."
Alfonzo's words seemed to be enough to calm Natsu and Wendy down, if only by a little. Still, it was enough that Natsu would not immediately go running off in search of Happy.
"Anyway, now that we're somewhere out of the public eye, can someone tell me what is going on" Marin asked.
With that, the group decided to move inside the house while Alfonzo, Elicia, and Lucy explained the current situation to Erza and Marin. All the while, they were biding their time until the manhunt going on in the Royal Capital calmed down a bit before they moved on to the next step in rescuing their guild mates.
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