Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.
August 12, x790.
"Are you sure they're going to show up today?" Mavis, the first and sixth master of the Fairy Tail guild, asked in a concerned tone.
"You don't need to worry about that." Irene replied while sitting on one of the couches in Mavis' office with a glass of wine in hand and one leg crossed over the other. "They're already here. In fact, one of them is approaching the town right now. Probably for investigation, or something of the sort."
About three seconds later, Mavis also noticed the one who entered the town, Itachi, as he started his investigation of the situation.
"*Sigh* I wish I could have started training this skill earlier." Mavis said, referring to [Magic Power Detection]. "I would imagine that my range would be rather vast by now."
"Undoubtedly." Irene replied with a smile. "At least on par with Alfonzo and Elicia if I were to guess."
"Yet, your range is much larger than theirs." Mavis said, turning to look at Irene. "But you've only been practicing it for a few years."
"But I have four hundred years of experience controlling my magic power. So, such a simple technique is simple for me to master."
"I guess that makes sense." Mavis said with a nod. "Not only that, but Fairy Tail wizards, including myself, aren't usually known for their subtlety."
"I've noticed." Irene replied with a smile.
Like that, the two oldest members of Fairy Tail continued to chat for a while longer. They eventually noticed Itachi leaving the town after his investigation was complete. Though, they noticed he did not get too close to the Mansion on the Lake, probably wary of being detected by the powerful wizards he could sense on the island.
"It looks like it should be starting soon." Irene said, her smile widening. "By the way, I'm sure you've given everyone opponents to focus on during this attack. So, what are the match up supposed to be?"
"Well, I wanted Elicia to face the one known as Konan." Mavis said, starting her explanation. "I think the threads versus the paper should be a good match. Naturally, Alfonzo would face off against their leader, as the strongest one present. Then---"
"Unfortunately, I think a lot of your plans are about to go up in smoke." Irene said as her brows furrowed slightly. "It looks like one of them is targeting the island. Meaning..."
"Alfonzo, Elicia, and Mirajane are going to lose it." Mavis said, finishing Irene's sentence. "*Sigh* Plans never survive first contact. I just hope they don't damage the town too much in their anger."
"Well, there isn't much we can do at this point." Irene said as she turned to look out the window in the direction of the Mansion on the Lake. "But I'll try my best to mitigate the damage if they lose themselves completely to their anger."
"I guess that's the best I can hope for." Mavis said while shaking her head. A moment later, she, too, turned to look towards Lake Sciliora.
A moment after Mavis spoke, both she and Irene saw a figure floating over Lake Sciliora. Then, they saw the air distort around the figure while feeling a vast amount of magic power being exerted. At the same time, a visible dome of magic power surrounded the entire lake. Shortly after, the entire lake. Then...
*Boom~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!*
The two forces of magic power collided, the sound of the collision so loud that it could be heard from every corner of Magnolia. Luckily, thanks to the properties of the [Barrier] Alfonzo raised, there were no shockwaves from the collision. Because had there been, most of Magnolia would have been heavily damaged, if not outright destroyed.
A moment later, a ripple of magic power was sent back to the figure in the sky. Then, it was sent flying straight up into the air. Only an instant later, a streak of violet light flew up as the [Barrier] was simultaneously lowered.
"Well, whoever that is, they aren't gonna have a good day." Irene said in a tone filled with schadenfreude.
Going back a moment, just as Pain's Deva Path was repelled by his reflected [Almighty Push], Alfonzo lowered the [Reflection Barrier].
"[Electromagnetism Magic: Lightning Enhancement]." Alfonzo chanted as his body was covered in arcs of violet electricity.
*Bang!*
He then flew up from the ground at several times the speed of sound, following the Deva Path into the air. At the same time, he connected to all those present in the mansion's backyard via the [Telepathy] afforded to him by his [Archive Magic].
{"I'll send this guy back to where he came from."} Alfonzo said through the [Telepathic Link]. {"The rest of his goons should be there, too. You'd better follow fast before you lose me, or I take them all down on my own."}
Leaving the [Link] open, Alfonzo eventually caught up to Pain's Deva Path. When he eventually caught up with it, he wrapped his hand around it's neck before changing direction and flying towards the rest of the Akatsuki.
Meanwhile, back at the spot where the Akatsuki had gathered, Pain's other paths began getting ready for battle while the other members of Akatsuki looked on in surprise after seeing the Deva Path's attack having no effect on its target.
"What the hell just happened?" Deidara asked in a dumbfounded tone.
"It would appear that we've underestimated our opponents." Sasori said emotionlessly.
"I warned you all of their power back during the Grand Magic Games." Itachi said in an equally emotionless tone. "But you dismissed my warning."
Unfortunately, they did not have the time to talk about it any further, as Alfonzo, with the Deva Path in hand was approaching fast."
"Scatter!" The Human Path ordered as he and the other five Paths of Pain leapt away from Alfonzo's landing point.
Without hesitation, Konan, Itachi, Kisame, Kakuzu, Deidara, and Sasori all joined the Paths of Pain in distancing themselves from the impact site.
*Boom~~~~~!*
A moment later, a flash of violet light slammed into the ground at the former center point of where the Akatsuki once stood, coincidentally, that was also where the Nakara Path, the only one of the Paths of Pain capable of reviving the defeated Paths and healing the injured, once stood, as well.
As a result of the collision, the ground shook and a cloud of dust and debris was kicked up into the air, obscuring the vision of the others. So, the other members of the Akatsuki were unaware of who attacked. Though, Itachi and Kisame, who had watched the Grand Magic Games, had a fairly good guess of who they were up against.
The other five Paths of Pain, on the other hand, knew exactly who they were up against, as they, and the one controlling them all shared vision thanks to the Rinnegan that was slotted in their eyes.
"Tch! I missed." Alfonzo muttered as he stood up in the crater his impact created. "Whatever. [Electromagnetism Magic: Spider Lightning]."
Once again, Alfonzo's body was covered in violet electricity before that electricity was sent outwards in all directions. Luckily, the members of the Akatsuki had not dropped their guard in the slightest, all able to defend from the spell in their own ways.
While Konan and itachi were quick to distance themselves from the incoming spell, Kisame pulled his sword, Samehada off his back and used it as a shield. Deidara reached into the two pouches on his waist, which caused a strange chewing sound to echo around the area, before throwing small statuettes at the lightning that enlarged quickly. Meanwhile, Sasori jammed his long, metallic tail as deep into the ground as he could, grounding the lightning and making it unable to do as much damage as Alfonzo would have liked. As for Kakuzu, he ran through a string of hand signs at high speed.
"[Earth-Style: Multi-Earth-Style Wall Jutsu]." Kakuzu chanted as he slammed his hands into the ground.
As for the remaining five Paths of Pain, they all gathered behind the Preta Path, who was capable of absorbing Magic power.
*Boom!*
A moment later, an explosion sounded as Deidara's enlarged statuettes exploded, blocking the electric discharge. As for the others, all their defensive measures did their jobs, as well.
At the same time, thanks to Alfonzo's spell, the dust cloud was blown away, revealing Alfonzo, who was standing over the charred and broken remains of the Deva Path.
"Well, I guess you're all pretty good." Alfonzo said, his tone cold and quite angry. "But attacking my house, my family the way this mother fucker just did was a bad idea."
As he spoke, Alfonzo lightly kicked the Deva Path's remains, causing them to crumble into ash.
"And I think you're about to find out just how bad an idea that was." Alfonzo continued.
"You think you can beat all of us by yourself?" Deidara asked while fighting his natural instinct to run.
"I do, actually." Alfonzo replied as he glanced at Deidara out of the corner of his eyes. "But I'm not the only one who wants to deal with you cock suckers."
Before Deidara could respond, however, a strange symbol formed from [Darkness Magic] appeared under his feet.
"Huh? What the hell---" Deidara began to say.
"[Darkness Stream]."
In the next instant, tendrils of [Darkness Magic] grew from the symbol on the ground, surrounding and enveloping Deidara.
"Argh~~~~~~~~~~~!" Deidara's pain-filled scream could be heard from inside of the writhing mass of tendrils.
A moment later, the tendrils moved, flinging Deidara into the distance. Shortly after that, Alfonzo and the members of Akatsuki looked up to see Mirajane, in her [Take Over: Satan Soul] flying in the direction where Deidara was sent flying.
"[Satan Soul], huh?" Alfonzo muttered to himself while watching Mirajane fly away. "Her instincts have always been good. She even chose the best of her [Satan Souls] to face that guy."
{"Mira, that's the best [Take Over] to fight that guy with."} Alfonzo said, letting Mirajane know a little about what he knew when it came to Deidara. {"[Lightning Magic] is the weakness to all his techniques. So, keeping yourself cloaked in it at all times is the safest thing you can do."}
{"Got it."} Mirajane replied quickly as she flew towards her target.
At the same time, Konan sprouted a large pair of wings out of her back before taking to the sky, as well. However, she was not going after Deidara to make sure he was safe. Instead, she was doing so to evade the threads that shot up from the ground beneath her.
"Tch! I missed, too."
Everyone, other than Pain and Itachi was surprised to hear that disappointed voice, as the two with the special eyes were able to see her from the very beginning. As for the others, they were only able to see the attacker when she dropped her [Camouflage Magic] as she hopped off Alfonzo's back, where she had been since Alfonzo powered up the [Reflection Barrier].
"Yet, instead of following up by attacking Konan again, another set of threads shot out from under the ground, this time targeting the Nkara Path. And this time, the entanglement succeeded, as the corpse puppet was tightly bound by Elicia's threads.
However, the bindings did not last long, as the Preta path quickly turned around and placed its hands on the threads, absorbing the magic power they were comprised of.
{"Do it."} Alfonzo ordered over the [Telepathic Link].
*Splatter!*
A moment later, the Nakara Path's head exploded into a rain of gore just as all the magic power in the threads had been absorbed.
{"Hit."} Rika said over the [Telepathic Link].
{"Great Shot, Rika."} Elicia said as she slightly relaxed.
{"Did you expect anything less?"} Rika asked pridefully.
In fact, the reason Alfonzo left the [Telepathic Link] open was for this very moment. Although being able to keep in touch with the rest of the guild was important, getting rid of the Nakara Path had always been at the top of his list of priorities. Because as any good gamer knows, taking out the healer first is always the key to victory.
And even if Alfonzo was powerful enough to handle Akatsuki on his own and thoroughly pissed off that they targeted the place where his children were, he never lost his cool completely, still rational enough to command the battle.
Meanwhile, after seeing the Nakara Path being taken down, Konan knew that things were not going the way Nagato anticipated. So, instead of engaging in battle, she flew off to get Nagato's true body out of here. She had already lost one of the people she cared most about in this world, and she had no intention of losing the other.
"I'll go after her." Elicia said as she watched Konan fly away. "We can't have them getting away, after all. He needs to answer for what he tried to do."
"Alright." Alfonzo said with a smile. "Just be careful."
"I will." Elicia replied.
In the next instant, Elicia vanished in a burst of speed, using [Shave] to chase after Konan. Meanwhile, Alfonzo let his gaze pass over the other members of the Akatsuki.
"I hope the rest of you aren't planning to run." Alfonzo said with a smile. "We've got a few people who want to play, too. And they'd be really sad if their playmates up and ran away. Then again, you can run if you want. I mean I wouldn't be surprised if you all bitched out."
As proud as all the members of the Akatsuki were, there were only two who had any thoughts of running. One was kakuzu, who was only in it for the money. And from what he could see, no amount of money was worth the situation he found himself in at the moment. And the other was Itachi, who had a goal for being here.
'I can't fall here.' itachi thought to himself. 'I have to stay alive long enough for Sasuke to grow to a point where he can defeat me. Otherwise, everything I did in the past would have no meaning.'
Meanwhile, several Fairy Tail wizards, namely, those who had been at the Mansion on the Lake before this whole thing started, which included a surprise for Itachi, were approaching the battlefield as fast as they could.