Earth Land, Ishgar, kingdom of Fiore, Hargeon.

August 4, x791.

Going back a few minutes, Around the time Alfonzo and Brandish entered the private room, a group of four slowly entered the town of Hargeon from the port. Though, there was no boat visible at the port that could have transported them.

Leading this group was a humanoid woman, Kyôka, of Tartaros' Nine Demon Gates. Accompanying her was a man who Alfonzo and Elicia clashed with several years ago, Jackal, and two other previously unseen Etherious.

The first of which was a muscular man of imposing height with most of his face concealed by a hood. However, his chin, covered by a beard could be seen from under the shadows of the hood. On top of that, some of his long, blond hair hung down to his chest. And when the hood shifted, it would be possible to see his pair of dark green, oval-shaped eyes and some of the thick hair that covered his forehead.

The last of the four was a short, round, yellowish-green-skinned humanoid creature with only one eye wearing a helmet and a cheerful, grinning expression holding a rod that he used to walk.

Finally, I'll have the chance to get my revenge." Jackal said in a manic tone. "I'll blow up everything in this town and turn them all to ashes. And when that man is dead, I'll be able to see the look of despair on that woman's face when I show her his burned remains."

"As long as the targets are dead, anything you do is fine." Kyôka replied coldly. "But if we fail… Lord Mard Geer's punishment will not be anything that any of us want to face."

Hearing that, the other three demons, Jackal, the tall, blond one, and the short green-skinned one shuddered. Even so, they did not slow their steps.

"So, do we know where they are?' The tall Etherious, named Tempester, asked in a cold tone.

"According to our spies in the Council, which are not nearly as effective as they used to be, Alfonzo Marcus should be cooking at a restaurant at this moment." Kyôka replied. "And the one he is cooking for is the Princess of Fiore, Hisui E. Fiore. If possible, I'd like to bring her back alive. Mmm… Turning her into a demon would be wonderful. She's quite the beautiful girl from what I hear. *sigh* it's a shame that fool Jiemma was unable to bring his daughter when he defected. I'd been looking forward to seeing her as a demon for quite some time."

"I don't see why we can't just go get her later." The short, round Etherious, Franmalth, said cheerfully. "There shouldn't be anyone strong enough to make that an issue, right?"

"I suppose." Kyôka said. "I'll think about that later. For now, we must focus on completing Lord Mard Geer's assignment."

Jackal, Tempester, and Franmalth nodded in response as the four continued to move towards 8-Island. And as they drew near, they found a crowd of people, both civilians and knights surrounding the restaurant.

"Oh, this must be the place." Jackal said in an excited tone. "And look, there are so many humans to get rid of. Those Fairy Tail wizards are so kind to give us so many humans to eliminate."

"Don't be a fool, jackal." Kyôka said coldly. "Have you forgotten how easily you were defeated in the past?"

"What did you say!?" Jackal roared indignantly.

"I'll handle this." Tempester said, not paying attention to the angry jackal as his demonic power began to stir. "[Calamity curse: Cyclone]."

With his chant, wind began to swirl around Tempester's arms. And as each second ticked by, those winds turned into gales before spinning with the force of a tornado.

*Boom!*

A moment later, Tempester controlled the winds whirling around his arms to blast himself into the air. Then, when he was above the 8-Island Restaurant, he brought his hands together and focused the gale-force winds around his arms into one, larger, cyclone before pointing it down at the restaurant.

Yet, before Tempester could even attack, a large, metal cylinder shot up from the ground, covering the entire district of the town where 8-Island was located. On top of that, there was even a top on the cylinder, making it impossible to attack the area from all directions above ground.

*Boom~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!*

Just as the cylinder was finished forming, Tempester's curse slammed into it. As a result, gusts of wind were sent in all directions. Luckily, the cylinder was high enough from the rest of the town that not much damage was sustained. Though, many windows were shattered thanks to the shockwave.

On top of that, the sound of people panicking could be heard from both inside and outside of the cylinder. However, that was to be expected. Especially since the area suddenly went completely dark before a loud explosion made the entire area rattle.

Meanwhile, Alfonzo and Brandish casually walked down the stairs from 8-Island's second floor. When they reached the bottom of the stairs, they found Yajima waiting for them.

"I knew it could never be a simple chef quest." Alfonzo said in a teasing tone. "S-Class quests are just never that easy."

"Do you have any idea what's happening?" Yajima, in contrast to Alfonzo's easygoing tone, asked in a solemn tone.

"*Sigh* Unfortunately." Alfonzo replied, his teasing tone dropping for something just as solemn as Yajima's. "I was hoping to find them before they came to find us after the mess at Crawford Seam's and Org's execution. But finding those damned demons was a lot harder than I expected."

"Demons?" Yajima asked, a frown crossing his face as he contemplated Alfonzo's words.

"Tartaros." Brandish said, answering the question before Yajima could come to a conclusion on his own. "Zeref's Bookshelf some might call them."

"Ah!" Yajima exclaimed in realization. "But how can you be sure it's them? Couldn't it just be some random dark wizard trying to take advantage of the Princess being out of the capital?"

"I'm sure Gramps has told you about the way we detect people, right?" Alfonzo asked a question of his own instead of answering Yajima's directly. After receiving a nod from Yajima, he then continued. "Well, I've been using that ever since we left Magnolia. And although I'm not exactly sure how they got into Hargeon without me noticing it first, I recognize one of them. It's the demon that blew shit up back when he tried to save Crawford Seam during the execution a few years ago."

"I see." Yajima replied, an expression of understanding on his face. "That makes sense. "Then, that explosion was him trying to..."

"No, he didn't act this time." Alfonzo replied. "It was another one. Even worse than that, there are two more with that one. So, I don't think they're here for the princess."

"Then, why are they here?" Yajima asked in a confused tone.

Brandish looked at Alfonzo with curiosity, as well.

"*Sigh* They're probably here for me." Alfonzo admitted in a tired tone. "Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if they sent another team to deal with Lici, too. I mean, we did kinda ruin whatever they were planning when they tried to save Crawford Seam from his execution."

"I see..." Yajima drawled in understanding.

"Anyway, we better get going." Alfonzo said as he started walking towards the door, Brandish trailing closely behind him. "I wanna take care of this before the citizens panic too much. I did put them in a big ass metal can to protect the town from whatever that demon did."

"Then, I won't keep you." Yajima said as he turned to watch Alfonzo and Brandish leave. "Be careful, you two. Tartaros is a member of the Balam Alliance for a reason."

"Yeah, and we don't just tell people that Fairy Tail is the strongest to toot our own horns, you know." Alfonzo replied while waving at Yajima without turning around.

Shortly afterwards, Alfonzo and Brandish stepped out into the streets of Hargeon where the knights were trying to calm the civilians trapped inside the defensive barrier Alfonzo created.

"It's the Master of Metal!" A civilian man shouted after seeing Alfonzo and Brandish step outside.

"Hey! Get us out of here!" Another man shouted in panic.

"What's going on?" A woman asked, almost in tears. "I need to get back home to my husband and children. Please, let us out of here."

'Why the hell are these people acting like this?' Alfonzo thought to himself. 'I mean, if they were able to get here to see Hisui's procession, their houses are probably inside, too. Actually, why the hell are they even still out here? Shouldn't they have gone home after they went inside? *Sigh* Braindead fans.'

"Alfonzo, should we tell the people about what's going on?" Brandish asked, snapping Alfonzo out of his thoughts.

Taking a moment to think, Alfonzo eventually shook his head.

"No, I don't think that's a good idea." Alfonzo replied. "If we tell them, the normal civilians will panic even worse than they are now. And that won't end well for anyone."

After speaking his piece, Alfonzo created a sheet of metal in front of him before stepping onto it. Meanwhile, Brandish nodded in agreement with what Alfonzo had to say before stepping onto the metal sheet after him.

A moment later, using his [Metal Magic], Alfonzo manipulated the metal sheet to float upwards, drawing the attention of the civilians, who pointed in wonder. Eventually, the floating sheet reached the top of the cylinder, where Alfonzo created a trap door. The trap door then opened, Alfonzo and Brandish rising through it.

"Oh, they got up here fast." Alfonzo said after he and Brandish were standing on the top of the cylinder. "Honestly, I thought they'd spend more time trying to destroy it before coming up."

As Alfonzo said, Kyôka, Jackal, and Franmalth had already joined Tempester on the top of the cylinder by the time he and Brandish arrived. Not only that, but they were glaring at the two Fairy Tail wizards before Alfonzo even opened his mouth to speak.

"We finally found you." Kyôka said calmly after examining Alfonzo and Brandish. "You Fairy Tail insects have disrupted our plans for long enough."

"Huh?" Alfonzo, slightly confused by Kyôka's accusation, tilted his head in confusion. "I know I stopped you from taking Crawford Seam back then, but when else have I ever gotten in your way?"

Usually, when Alfonzo acted like this, he would be mocking his opponent, trying to anger them before the battle to gain a psychological advantage. But this time, he was genuinely confused. Other than the run in with Jackal back at the execution, he has never run into any members of Tartaros.

Little did Alfonzo know, Junko Enoshima was carrying out a task for Tartaros when he and Elicia stormed her base of operations. And because of their interference, Junko was never able to get the information they wanted.

"At this point, that no longer matters." Kyôka replied coldly. "There's no point explaining to a dead man."

"Man, if I had five jewels for every villain that's threatened me like that." Alfonzo replied with a shrug.

"Would it really make a difference?" Brandish replied in a bored tone. "You're already the richest man on Ishgar."

"Hmm... Now that you mention it..." Alfonzo said, feigning contemplation.

"Enough!" Jackal shouted as he launched himself at Alfonzo and Brandish. "None of that will matter once you're blown to smithereens!"

"Huh? You look familiar." Alfonzo said, this time tilting his head in mockery rather than confusion. "Who are you again?"

"Bastard!" Jackal shouted as he threw himself forward, hands outstretched. "I'll kill you!"

"Yeah, still as easy to rile up as ever." Alfonzo muttered before he vanished from where he stood in a flash of violet light. When he reappeared, he was hovering above Jackal with one of his tonfa drawn and poised to be thrust down into jackal's back. "That shit didn't work all those years ago, dumbass. So, why do you think it will work now. [Metal Magic: Giga Drill Break]."

With Alfonzo's chant, the tip of the tonfa, Riot, stretched before morphing into the head of a drill that began to spin violently. Then, before Jackal could react, his eyes wide open in surprise, Alfonzo thrusted the drill down into the center of his torso.

*Splatter!*

As a result, Jackal's torso was torn apart, blood, flesh, and bone fragments thrown in all directions. Yet, not a drop of blood landed on Alfonzo, thanks to the cloak of electricity surrounding him. Brandish also protected herself from being splashed by bits of minced Etherious by using [Command T] to enlarge a lint ball she plucked from the edge of her skirt and throwing it in front of her to act as a gore shield.

At the same time, Kyôka, Tempester, and Franmalth looked on, their expressions showing that they had started to take this encounter more seriously. Though, it was clear that they had no fear of losing. Because even if they did lose, they would be resurrected on the Cube. The punishment they would have to face from Mard Geer might be an issue, though.

Alfonzo, on the other hand, was smiling widely. Unfortunately, with his back to the Etherious, they had no way of knowing that. Brandish was able to see that smile, though. And when she saw it, she immediately knew that Tartaros was not going to have a good time in the future. Though, she had no way of knowing exactly what Alfonzo had planned.

'Riot, did it work?' Alfonzo asked internally.

["It did."] Riot replied with a scoff. ["But this is the most disgusting thing I've ever experienced. Connecting to a soul as distorted as that guy's is fucking nauseating."]

["Quit your bitchin'"] Bedlam said nonchalantly.

["What the fuck did you say?"] Riot asked angrily.

["Just look at it this way."] Bedlam continued, completely unbothered by Riot's outburst. ["Just imagine what Lici and Scylla will think when Alfonzo tells them about what happened."]

As if he were never angry, Riot quieted down and the scowl on his face was quickly replaced by a goofy smile.

"Simp..." Bedlam muttered quietly enough that he would not break Riot out of his fantasy.

'Yeah, now we should be able to find the Cube without a problem.' Alfonzo said internally as he wiped the smile off his face and turned to look at the three remaining Etherious. 'With Riot latching onto that guy's soul as it headed back home, I'll have the coordinates in no time. The only thing left to do here is to get rid of these nuisances and finish Yajima's quest. Then, I'll get a few of the guys from the guild and we'll go on a demon hunt aboard the Blackbird.'