Chapter 348: Mend the Seams of Reality
Earth land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Unnamed Ruined Village.
May 1, x785.
Under the light of the moon, in an unassuming village ruin, two people stood among the ruined buildings at the northeastern edge of the village. In front of these two people, Lust and Gluttony, there was a then, conical scar in the ground that widened as the distance from the two increased. And at one point, there were the remains of what used to be a house on either side of the scar. In fact, everything in the path of the scar had just recently been devoured into another dimension by Gluttony.
"Good job, Gluttony." Lust said, reaching over to the side to pat Gluttony on the head. "That's one less annoyance we have to worry about."
In most cases, whenever Lust praised Gluttony, he would exude a sense of happiness that could be felt from nearby. However, nothing of the sort happened this time. Instead, when Lust looked in his direction, she noticed that he was staring at the devastation he just caused with a confused and unsatisfied gaze.
"What's wrong, Gluttony?" Lust asked as her eyes narrowed.
"I didn't taste her..." Gluttony mumbled in a disappointed tone.
Hearing that, Lust's eyes raised in surprise.
"Did she manage to escape?" Lust thought to herself while looking around. 'But how? Did she feel us coming? No, that should be impossible. We don't have magic power. So, we don't agitate the ethernano in the air when we move.'
Although she was unaware of the [Magic Power Detection] most of the wizards from Fairy Tail used, Lust had lived long enough to have a grasp of how other wizards feel for the presences around them. Either way, she was correct about the fact that Elicia had no way of detecting her by normal means.
On top of that, Father and the homunculi were aware that Alfonzo had taken Mayuri Kurotsuchi's Zanpakuto research. However, they vastly underestimated his ability to understand the research's more technical information about the relationship between the soul and magic power. So, they did not expect Elicia to have her [Soul Armament]. They also overlooked the fact that Elicia could spread her threads to act as a spider's web for detection.
"Gluttony, stay alert, she can camouflage herself." Lust ordered sharply. Then, Lust turned her head in a certain direction. "She'll probably try to run away. Hurry up Gluttony, go and--- Argh~~~~~!"
Before Lust could finish giving her orders, however, she screamed and covered her eyes. Meanwhile, blood streamed down her face from under her hands.
"Lust!" Gluttony shouted with a mixture of anger and concern in his tone. "Are you okay?"
"I'll be fine." Lust replied with a growl as she pulled the objects that impaled her eyes out of her eye sockets.
A moment later, Lust's eyes were healed with the sparking of red electricity. Then, she looked down at the two thin objects she was holding in her hand.
"Needles?" Lust asked, clenching her hand around the two golden needles with dragon motifs. "It was that little bitch from Fairy Tail. She's still here."
"That's not very nice" Elicia's voice echoed from around the area. "You have quite the potty mouth, don't you? I think we should do something about that."
"If you think you can, why don't you---" Lust began to say in a threatening tone.
However, she was interrupted once again. And this time, she felt a number of thin threads wrap around her tongue mid-sentence.
"[Thread Magic: Vibrational Cutter]." Elicia chanted.
In the next moment, the threads wrapped around Lust's tongue began to vibrate at a high frequency, causing damage from the heat generated by the vibrations alone. Then, they were pulled taut, cutting off a part of Lust's tongue as they tightened around it.
"Argh~~~~~~~~!" Lust screamed in pain.
Meanwhile, with bloodshot eyes, Gluttony was searching his surroundings. It was clear by the look in his eyes that he wanted to make the one hurting Lust, Elicia, suffer.
"You're more ruthless than your psych profile would suggest." Lust replied after her tongue regenerated and she spat out a mouthful of blood. "You'd better pray to whatever god you believe in that I don't get the opportunity to sink my claws into you."
As she spoke, Lust extended her fingernails into a battle ready state.
Meanwhile, while under the cover of her [Hiding in Plain Sight] spell, Elicia was watching Lust and Gluttony from atop a nearby building.
"If it was just one of them, I could probably take care of them with little effort." Elicia muttered as she watched Lust regenerate her tongue. "But dealing with both of them might be a little tough."
["Why don't you use my power?"] Scylla asked. ["Dealing with them would be much easier, wouldn't it?"] Scylla asked.
"It would." Elicia replied with a nod. "But there's a chance one of them might escape. And if that were to happen, the enemy would have more information about our capabilities. Then, they would prepare countermeasures."
["And?"] Scylla asked with a snort.
"I guess you're right." Elicia replied with a smile. "[Mend the Seams of Reality, Scylla]."
In the next instant, the wrist band on Elicia's left wrist started to glow. Shortly afterward, Elicia's left hand was covered in the same glow. And that glow eventually covered her right hand, as well. A moment later, the glow dissipated, revealing Elicia's hands once again. However, instead of her smooth, brown-skinned hands, her hands were now covered in golden dragon scales, while her fingernails elongated into claws.
At the same time, Elicia's magic power sky rocketed to five times its normal amount, dispelling her [Camouflage Magic] in the process.
"Hmm… That's something we'll need to work on." Elicia muttered as she watched Lust and Gluttony's heads whip in her direction.
A moment later, Elicia shot one of the scales on the back of her right hand towards a nearby building. And that scale, when ejected, took the shape of a golden sewing needle. On top of that, the eye of the needle was already threaded with Elicia's [Thread Magic].
Then, with a light tug, Elicia pulled herself from the rooftop she was standing on. Then, the building was sucked away just like the house she found the philosopher's stone in.
"I really need to do something about that." Elicia muttered as she watched Gluttony turn in her direction again. "But I need to do something about her, first."
With Lust's ability to extend and sharpen her fingernails to the point they could supposedly cut through anything, the [Ultimate Spear], Elicia knew that simply binding either of the homunculi she was facing off against would be an exercise in futility. So, she would have to incapacitate one of them before she could do any real damage.
["Well, now that you're using me, you can do exactly what you do best, right?"] Scylla asked.
"Right." Elicia replied quietly. "[Piping]."
A moment later, a number of the threads Elicia released with her [Detection Threads] spell suddenly shot upwards around Lust. ON top of that, the tips of the threads had all turned into the same golden needles as her scales. Then, before either Lust or Gluttony could react, the needles, along with the threads pierced into Lust from all directions.
"Argh~~~~~~~~~~!" Lust screamed in pain once again.
However, instead of just piercing into her, the needles and threads were constantly moving throughout her body, leaving stylized Fairy Tail emblems all over her skin, muscles, and organs.
"Stop hurting Lust!" Gluttony shouted.
"I should be able to do something about you now, two." Elicia said, raising her hands in Gluttony's direction as she did so. "[Straight Stitching]."
With her chant, a large number of the scales on Elicia's fingers were fired towards Gluttony. More specifically, towards the edges of his open torso. Then, before Gluttony could activate his power, they pierced through the sides of his open torso and started stitching them back together.
"Gwargh~~~~~~!" And just like with Lust, Gluttony also bellowed in pain thanks to the feeling of needles and threads stitching his body.
A moment later, Gluttony's torso had reverted to its original state. On top of that, Elicia had left a smiley face with its tongue sticking out on Gluttony's stomach as a point of mockery.
"Huh?" Gluttony exclaimed in confusion after noticing his torso had closed.
Then, he looked down and saw the smiley face on his abdomen, which caused him to tilt his head. However, his head snapped in Lust's direction when she screamed once again.
"Argh~~~~~! I'm going to kill you, Elicia Taylor.!" Lust shrieked angrily.
"I'd rather you didn't." Elicia replied with a smile. "[Thread Magic: Dehiscence]."
A moment later, all the Fairy Tail emblems embroidered into Lust's body were ripped out. As a result, she was left in a heap of blood and gore. On top of that, the Philosopher's stone that was the core of her being was pulled out of her body, as well.
'Hey, with your powers, is there anything I can do about that thing?' Elicia asked internally.
["Probably."] Scylla replied. ["But there are two issues with doing it right now. First, you have no experience in dealing with souls. And second, if you released the souls trapped in the stone, killing Lust in the process, Gluttony would go on a rampage. I'm not sure the [Cross Stitching] would hold. And I doubt you would like having a completely crazed Gluttony chasing you back to magnolia."]
"*Sigh* I get it." Elicia grumbled as she flicked her fingers a few times. "Then, I'll just get her away from here."
A moment later, a number of thin threads held the Philosopher Stone.
"What are you doing to Lust?" Gluttony asked angrily.
"Don't worry, she'll be fine, I promise." Elicia said with a dazzling smile.
In the next instant, with the use of her threads, Elicia sent the Philosopher's Stone flying in the direction opposite Magnolia. Meanwhile, Gluttony could only stare blankly as Lust's Philosopher's Stone soared off into the distance.
A few moments later, the Philosopher's Stone began sparking with red lightning. Then, Lust's body began reforming around it. And as soon as enough of her body reformed to speak, she shouted angrily.
"Damn you~~~~~~~!" Lust shrieked.
Lust's scream was enough to finally pull Gluttony out of his daze.
"Lust~~~~~!" Gluttony shouted as he started running after Lust.
Meanwhile, Elicia simply watched the two homunculi fade into the distance.
"*Sigh* If either of them was alone, I would have killed them without hesitation." Elicia grumbled.
[I'm surprised you didn't take the opportunity to kill Gluttony after tossing Lust away."] Scylla replied.
"Honestly, I'm not sure if I would have had enough time." Elicia said as she started walking towards her Z3. ["In the canon, Scar killed Gluttony over and over. Like during the whole fight under Central. Yet, he only brought him to the brink of death before Father took him back into himself and kept him alive. And the worst part is we don't know exactly how long that fight took."
["I guess I understand."] Scylla replied with a nod. ["It's the magic of anime time dilation. A fight that actually spanned hours can be shown in the time after the commercial break. Meanwhile, a five minute fight on a dying planet could span several episodes."]
"Bingo." Elicia replied with a smile. "Either way, I'm surprised they actually used one of these as bait. Elicia said, pulling the smaller Philosopher's Stone in the pendant that she picked up in the destroyed house out of her waist pouch. "They have no idea what Fonzie could do with something like this."
["He wouldn't actually use it, would he?"] Scylla asked skeptically.
"No." Elicia replied while shaking her head. "But he would research it. Then, I'm sure he'll find a way to negate the powers the homunculi get from them."
["I see."] Scylla replied with a nod. ["That makes sense. By the way, Elicia…"]
"Yeah, what's up?" Elicia asked as she tilted her head.
["Why haven't you cancelled my release yet?"] Scylla asked in confusion. ["We've been out of battle for a while now."]
"Oh, because I don't want the stitches holding Gluttony closed to disappear." Elicia replied. "I mean, that's what happened whenever Kisuke released Benihime's Bankai, after all."
["*Sigh* Just cancel my release already."] Scylla said in an exasperated tone. ["Those stitches won't disappear, I promise."]
"If you say so." Elicia replied as her hands turned back to normal and the wristband holding the sewing needles reappeared on her left wrist. "Oh, and what about when they return to Father? Fonzie said that all his metal was taken out of Envy's body after they went back."
["In theory, he shouldn't be able to do anything about the stitching we did."] Skylla replied. ["Although the threads used for the stitches are material, they were created with the combination of magic power and spiritual energy. So, those threads are much more than just normal threads."]
"I hope you're right." Elicia replied. "Anyway, let's go home. I still have work to do on the pieces for my summer collection. On top of that, I have to put the finishing touches on Fonzie's birthday gift."
With that, Elicia disabled the barrier around her Z3. Then, she hopped inside and started the drive back to Magnolia.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
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