Earth Land, Ishgar, Bosco Airspace.
August 17, x791.
Having just crossed the border between Fiore and Bosco, the selected members of Fairy Tail, Alfonzo, Laxus, Fried, Alzack, Gray, Erza, Mirajane, Natsu, who brought along his partner, Happy, and Gajeel, who also brought his Exceed partner, Panther Lily with him, as well as Wendy and Carla, with Wendy tasked with casting her spell, Troia], on Natsu and Gajeel to keep them in fighting shape, were aboard the Blackbird, making their way in the direction where Riot could sense Jackal.
"Alfonzo, how much longer till we get there?" Laxus, seated in the copilot's seat, asked with is hands cupping the back of his head.
"Good God, would you please shup the fuck up already." Alfonzo replied in an annoyed tone. "Not even Amar'e asks, 'are we there yet?' as often as you do. We just reached the border, and I don't know how far away they are. So, I have no fucking idea when we'll be there."
Frowning in response, Laxus opted to stay quiet. Because although he knew that Alfonzo was annoyed with his questions, he also understood that he was not the only one who Alfonzo was annoyed with.
Ever since the Blackbird took off, Natsu had been running around, wanting to touch everything. And when he was told no, he would ask all sorts of questions about it, only to forget the answers a few minutes later. As a result, Alfonzo had answered the same questions more than a few times.
Then, there was Gajeel, who was staring at the exposed metal parts of the airship and drooling. And whenever Alfonzo sensed that the Iron Dragon Slayer was about to try and sneak a bite, he would send a chunk of metal flying at him. However, he could not use too much force, just in case he somehow missed and it punched a hole in the walls of the ship.
Next there was Fried. And although the green-haired wizard was not doing anything particularly annoying, Alfonzo was definitely feeling antsy with him standing behind him all the time. Though, that was mostly unintentional. Fried was not just standing behind Alfonzo for the hell of it. Rather, he was standing behind and to the left of Laxus, the perfect position to receive any orders. Unfortunately, behind and to the left of Laxus was right behind the pilot's seat. And having someone just standing behind him was starting to get on Alfonzo's nerves.
Gray was just up to his usual antics, clothed one second, stripped down to his boxers in the next. And although Alfonzo had gotten used to this little idiosyncrasy over the years, he still was not a fan of seeing it. However, there was one time that Gray even stripped out of his boxers, and had Erza not saved him, Juvia would have been royally pissed off at Alfonzo when she found out that Gray was no longer capable of having children after he sent a chunk of metal flying a little harder than he meant to from all the stress.
As for the other seven, Alfonzo had no issue with them. Alzack was chatting with Mirajane about her experiences when it came to raising a child. Meanwhile, Erza and Panther Lily were discussing swordsmanship quite passionately. IN fact, if there was more space, Alfonzo was sure that they would be sparring at this very moment. Then there was Wendy, who, just as asked, was keeping the [Troia] spell active on Natsu and Gajeel... Oh, and she was keeping it active on herself, as well. You know...? Since she was also a Dragon Slayer. Lastly, Happy and Carla were off in their own, pink, world, whispering sweet nothings to each other.
"Um... Laxus, can I ask you a question?" Wendy asked in her characteristically quiet tone.
"Hmm? What's up, Pipsqueak?" Laxus asked, curious to know what Wendy wanted to talk to him about since they did not really interact much.
"You're a Dragon Slayer, too." Wendy said while curiously tilting her head. "So, why don't you get motion sickness?"
"Because I'm just built different." Laxus replied with extreme confidence.
"Yeah, right." Alfonzo said, shooting back immediately. "You did a good job with your makeup, though. Can't even tell how pale you are underneath. But the slight shaking of your hands and the tremors in your voice are enough to give you away, though."
"Wha-Wha-What are you talking about?" Laxus asked, a bit of panic leaking into his tone. He then lurched forward and covered his mouth. "Urgh!"
"Laxus! Hold on!" Fried cried frantically as he jumped forward to try and comfort Laxus.
Unfortunately, with Alfonzo calling him out and pointing out that he was wearing makeup to cover his paleness from the motion sickness, Laxus lost the concentration he was using to hold down his upset stomach. As a result, he started dry heaving, which worried Fried to no end.
["Yeah, can't nobody tell me that mother fucker wouldn't bend over and take it if Laxus asked him to."] Bedlam said while shaking his head in Alfonzo's inner world.
While Alfonzo was smirking at Laxus, who had been trying to play it cool, Alzack, Gray, Erza, Mirajane, Wendy, Carla, and Panther Lily were all thoroughly surprised. As for Natsu and Happy, they were rolling on the floor while hysterically laughing at Laxus' misfortune, with Natsu laughing especially hard. As for Gajeel, he was also chuckling at Laxus' misfortune. But he was mainly trying to use the uproar to sneak a bite of the metal that went into the airship's construction... again.
"Gajeel, if you don't keep your mouth away from my ship, I promise you, I'll find a way to shut it permanently. Then, you'll never be able to eat metal ever again." Alfonzo threatened coldly without even looking back at Gajeel.
"Huh? What are you talking about, Alfonzo?" Gajeel, after quickly leaning away from the interior wall of the Blackbird, said while sounding overly suspicious. "I would never try to eat your airship. I was just... Uh... admiring the craftsmanship. Yeah! That's it. Your truly an artisan when it comes to creating things like this."
"I'm actually more surprised that Gajeel used a word like artisan in the right context than I am at the fact that he backpedaled the way he did." Mirajane said with mock confusion on her face.
"That's because if he couldn't eat metal, I doubt there would be much point in living for Gajeel." Panther Lily added.
"But if Alfonzo shut his mouth permanently, metal wouldn't be the only thing he couldn't eat." Gray pointed out.
"Gray, please put your clothes back on." Erza said calmly. She then raised her right fist as she continued. "Or perhaps you'd like me to help you remember that stripping in front of others is rather rude?"
"No, I'm good." Gray replied while quickly running around to pick up his discarded clothing.
"*Sigh* With all of you acting like this, it's no wonder that Alfonzo seems so annoyed." Carla said while shaking her head tiredly. "I'm not even the pilot, and I wanna throw most of them out without even stopping to land first."
Like that, two hours passed with the atmosphere changing very little. Though, Wendy did end up casting [Troia] on Laxus, as well. Even so, he denied the fact that he even needed her help until the end.
"Hey, what is that?" Natsu, who had been pestering Alfonzo to teach him how to pilot the Blackbird, asked while pointing out the windshield with his eyes squinted.
"Hmm?" Laxus hummed as he, too, squinted his eyes and looked where Natsu was pointing. "Is that… a floating cube?"
"That's what it looks like." Alfonzo replied as he used [Electromagnetism Magic] to project radio waves to act as a radar. "Looks like we've reached our destination. Everyone, prepare for battle."
With Alfonzo's announcement, all the playing around in the Blackbird ended. Then, all the Fairy Tail wizards approached the cockpit and looked through the front windshield.
"Amazing." Wendy muttered while looking at the floating cube-shaped island.
"Alfonzo, do you think you could build something like that?" Erza asked. "Living on an island like that would be quite magical."
"Probably." Alfonzo replied casually. "It would take a lot of work and resources, though. And I doubt finding that many resources would be easy. And the only easy way isn't possible."
"What do you mean?" Fried asked curiously. "What is this 'easy way' you speak of?"
"Taking the resources from that island." Alfonzo said as he pointed at the Cube.
"Why isn't that possible?" Gray asked curiously.
Gray wasn't the only one who was curious to hear the answer to that question. Because the only people present who knew the plan of attack were Alfonzo and Erza. Though explaining the battle plan was a common thing, Fairy Tail was different. Most of the time, they did not follow any kind of plan when heading into battle, as seen by how they all separate and go their own way during the Grand Magic Game event in the Grand magic Games.
"Well, that's actually quite simple." Alfonzo said as he started operating the instruments on the control panel. A moment later, after pausing to build suspense, Alfonzo smiled as he raised a hand. "Because after today, that thing will no longer exist. Now, watch and be amazed. Releasing payload!"
With that, Alfonzo flipped the switches that controlled the prepared thermite missiles. At the same time, he channeled his [Electromagnetism Magic] into the console, which traveled through the wiring and created an electromagnetic field around the large railgun shells hanging under the wings.
"Fire~~~~~!" Alfonzo shouted.
With that, six thermite missiles were fired, each aimed at the center of the one of the six faces of the Cube. At the same time, electromagnetic fields around the railgun shells continued to charge. Then, just before the six missiles made impact, the two shells were fired, as well.
*Boom~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!*
In the next instant, six thermite missiles plunged into the waters of the cube before igniting. When they did, they immediately evaporated a large amount of the surrounding water, causing six massive steam explosions that ravaged the floating cube-shaped island. with the effects spreading continuously.
Yet, before all the water on the Cube could evaporate and cause even more damage, the two railgun shells were fired. Then, in less time than it took to blink, they slammed into the castle housing most of Tartaros.
*Boom~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!*
However, when those last two projectiles landed, they did not just destroy their target. Rather, they continued onwards after causing the entire castle to implode, traveling through the rest of the Cube, striking its core, and exiting from the opposite side before destroying a mountain that was in the path of their flight.
"What the hell?" Laxus asked dumbfoundedly with his eyes wide open.
"So scary…" Wendy whimpered after seeing the level of destruction on display.
"The destructive power is quite impressive." Erza said calmly while nodding her head.
Most of the others in the cockpit were too shocked to comment. However, there were a few who had something to say.
"Alfonzo, how do you expect me to use [Take Over] if you completely destroy everything?" Mirajane asked sternly while resting her hands on her hips in irritation.
"Hey! I would get in big trouble if I blew up everything like that!" Natsu shouted indignantly. "So, why is it okay when you do it?"
"Sorry, Mira." Alfonzo said in acold tone. "But it couldn't be helped."
Hearing Alfonzo's cold tone, everyone turned to look at him.
"Those mother fuckers made a big mistake when they attacked us last week." Alfonzo continued, his tone growing colder with every word. "Attacking us at the restaurant would have been fine. Hell, I would have been angry but understood the attack on the guild hall, too. But attacking our house… The house where our kids were… Nah, fuck that. When you put my kids in danger, this is what happens. I make everything you have, and everything you are, disappear. And for their sakes, I hope that they were all incinerated by that attack. Because if anyone of them survived… They're all gonna wish they did by the time I'm done with them."
While most of those on the Blackbird shivered at the frigid temperature of Alfonzo's words and vowed to never do anything that might even accidentally cause harm to Amar'e, Bianca, and Calvin, Alzack, Mirajane, and Natsu, the other parents on the airship, nodded their heads in agreement.
"Oh, and what do you know?" Alfonzo said, a malicious smile spreading across his face. "There are actually some survivors. Let's see… One… Two… Three… Four… Five of them… And one of them has a huge magic power signature. Looks like we'll be able to have a little fun then."