Lost Pride

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Crocus.

July, x785.

About an hour after Alfonzo, Elicia, Erza, and Marin decided that they would attack the homunculi, Alfonzo, Erza, and Marin were approaching the cave Alfonzo discovered near the outskirts of the city.

"Are you sure it was a good idea to let Lici go alone?" Marin asked, concern evident in her tone.

"I have faith in her." Erza said in a tone filled with conviction.

"I don't think you need to worry all that much, either." Alfonzo added. "With her skill in stealth and her [Camouflage Magic] on top of that, no one will find her unless she wants to be found."

"I guess you're right… But still…" Marin replied with an unsure expression on her face.

The reason Marin was so worried was due to the fact that during the time the quartet spent planning their raid on the homunculi's hideout, it was decided that Elicia would infiltrate from the Bradley residence, using the elevator she found during her investigation. Meanwhile, Alfonzo, Erza, and Marin would storm the place from the front, drawing the homunculi's attention.

Also, if the opportunity presented itself, Elicia would take out Selim Bradley, who was confirmed to be a homunculus by her [Magic Power Detection] during her initial investigation. Luckily, thanks to her meta knowledge, added with the fact that [Soul Armaments] are a homunculus' weakness, Alfonzo and Elicia were certain that she could get rid of Selim before anything could go wrong.

"The time to discuss this has passed." Erza said as she drew Astraia from the sheath on her hip.

"Erza's right, Marin." Alfonzo said as he drew his Riot and Bedlam, as well. "For now, all we can do is follow the plan. And as long as we're careful and don't do anything stupid, we should be able to handle whatever they throw at us."

"*Sigh* I guess you're right." Marin said as she [Transformed] Nova from a pair of bracelets into a pair of double-edged kodachi. "I just hope she's okay."

Meanwhile, back in the city, Elicia, under the effects of [Hiding in Plain Sight] was waiting for an opportunity to enter the Bradley residence. And while she was doing that, she was watching Selim Bradley work on an assignment from the school he attended.

'For such a lump of pride, he sure plays his role as a human child well.' Elicia thought as she peered through a window. 'Still, until Mrs. Bradley leaves the room, I can't make any moves. Although I know he's not human, I doubt she'd take it well if he just started spouting blood. At least she wouldn't have to see him sparking in red electricity, though. That's only a container, after all.'

As Elicia thought, Selim Bradley, or rather Pride did not have an actual body like the other homunculus. Instead, the mass of moving shadows that reported to Father once before, was his true form. He only inhabited that container to make it easier for him to move around where there were no shadows.

'This is taking too long.' Elicia thought to herself as she watched the family of two sit harmoniously. 'I need to do something about this. But what can I do?'

It took nearly an hour before Elicia found a viable solution to her problem. Eventually, while racking her brain for a way to get Mrs. Bradley out of the room faster, Elicia, while scanning the surroundings with her [Thread Detection], [Magic Power Detection], and her eyes, noticed a currier approaching the Bradley residence from down the street.

'I wonder if this will work.' Elicia thought as she extended a thread towards the currier. 'I just hope it won't hurt him. But if I can do like Doflamingo and control him, I might be able to create a distraction.'

"[Mend the Seams of Reality, Scylla]." Elicia chanted quietly.

A moment later, Elicia's magic power skyrocketed. However, unlike the last time she partially released Scylla's seal, Elicia was not forced out of her stealth. Realizing that something like that could be detrimental, the first thing Elicia did, after discovering that weakness, was to train until it became a non-issue.

Then, once her hands were covered in dragon scales, the tip of the thread extending towards the currier thread itself through the eye of a golden needle with a dragon motif before it was thrust into the base of the currier's neck.

When this happened, the currier immediately stopped in place with lifeless eyes. However, before even a second passed, the light returned to the middle-aged man's eyes as he continued forward. A moment later, he turned onto the walk way leading to the Bradley residence before lifting the door knocker.

'This is a lot harder than I thought it would be.' Elicia muttered to herself while controlling the middle-aged currier's actions.

As it turned out, by inserting one of Scylla's needles into he currier's central nervous system, Elicia was able to take control of the currier's body and control it like a puppet. On top of that, she was able to see what the currier saw, as well.

["You didn't expect it to be easy, did you?"] Scylla asked with an eye roll. ["You're basically splitting your mind in two to do this."]

'I know.' Elicia muttered internally once again. 'It would be a lot easier if I didn't have to worry about controlling my body, too, though.'

["There's no point in complaining."] Scylla said. ["Just pay attention. Once the job is done, you can relax for a bit before moving on to the next step."]

'Yeah, I know.' Elicia replied as she watched Mrs. Bradley stand up from the couch she was sitting on while Pride worked on his assignment.

A moment later, Mrs. Bradley left the room to answer the front door. Meanwhile, Pride, who had been wearing the expression of a diligent student, scowled as soon as Mrs. Bradley was no longer around.

"I'm growing tired of this act." Pride said disdainfully. "Now that Wrath is no longer here, what reason is there for me to continue this charade?"

Shaking his head to rid himself of those thoughts, Pride lowered his head, intending to continue with his assignment. Before he could put his pencil back on the paper, however, his eyes opened wide as he raised his head once again.

"Someone is attacking the caves." Pride said as all the shadows around him began to wave.

Before he could control the shadows to investigate the disturbance he was sensing from underground, however, a large number of threads wound themselves around Pride's mouth, arms, and legs to immobilize him.

Instead of panicking, however, Pride's eyes narrowed as if he were sneering. Then, all the shadows, instead of moving to investigate the disturbance, began moving to cut all the threads binding him.

Before he could cut any of the threads, however, Pride's eyes widened once again as even more threads approached him. These threads, however, were threaded through the eyes of golden needles with dragon motifs.

'These needles, Lust mentioned them in her report when she and Gluttony failed to kill Elicia Taylor.' Pride thought to himself. 'But why is she attacking me? Did she somehow find out that I was a homunculus? No, that's impossible. My act is perfect, even better than Wrath's was.'

Before Pride could think about it for too long, however, all the needles plunged into his body. Before long, they all found their way to his Philosopher's Stone.

At the same time, Pride's eyes widened as a muffled cry of pain tore from his throat. Luckily, Elicia had remembered to gag him as she immobilized his container. Otherwise, Mrs. Bradley would have been alerted.

["Marin and Nova were right."] Scylla said. ["The souls trapped in the Philosopher's Stone are escaping quickly."]

'Good.' Elicia muttered internally. 'I don't' know how much longer I can keep this up. Controlling the threads and that other guy is starting to get to me.'

Meanwhile, the middle-aged currier was standing outside the residence's front door, apologizing to Mrs. Bradley for the hold up, and sifting through the bag he carried, looking for a package with her name on it. Naturally, he would never find one, even if there actually was one for her in there.

["It's done."] Scylla said just before Elicia saw Pride's container flop lifelessly onto the table where he had been working. ["Hurry up and get inside. You need to get into the elevator before she comes back. Then, once you're inside, you can rest your mind."]

And just as Scylla said, Elicia dispelled all the threads and needles she used to immobilize and attack Pride. Then, she quietly opened the window she had been peering through, jumped through it, closed it just as quietly, and dashed through the house towards the elevator she found earlier in the day.

A few moments later, Elicia was standing in front of a grandfather clock. Naturally, this clock hid the entrance to the elevator. However, she had no idea how to reveal the elevator's doors.

["You need to hurry."] Scylla said with some urgency. ["Mrs. Bradley is getting impatient."]

'I know, don't rush me.' Elicia replied mentally. 'But the mechanism for this thing isn't magical in nature. So, I have to find it the old-fashioned way.'

["I know that."] Scylla shot back. ["That doesn't change the fact that you're running out of time."]

'I wonder if it's like the entrance to the Bat Cave?' Elicia asked herself as she touched the clock, simultaneously cloaking it in her [Hiding in Plain Sight] spell, as well. She would not want it to make a loud noise if she did something wrong, after all.

A moment later, Elicia opened the front of the clock before pulling on the hanging chimes. Shortly afterward, she heard the sound of gears turning as the clock slid to the side, revealing a single, sliding door and a button just to the side of it.

'There it is.' Elicia muttered internally as she was reaching her limit for parallel processing.

Then, she pressed the button next to the sliding door, which caused the elevator to open. And just as the door slid open, Elicia stumbled into the elevator before turning around to find the buttons that controlled it.

'Thank God he had the buttons marked.' Elicia said as she pressed the button labeled: "Close."

In the next instant, the elevator door slid shut. On top of that, thanks to the [Detection Threads] she had spread out, Elicia could feel the grandfather clock sliding into place as well. Then, Elicia stumbled backwards to lean on the elevator wall before letting herself slide down into a seated position.

"Alright, now I can have that currier leave." Elicia muttered in exhaustion. "Then, I'll give him control of his body back. I wonder if he'll remember this, though."

["Probably not."] Scylla replied. ["He might if he had more magic power, though. But if that were the case, it probably wouldn't have worked in the first place."]

As Scylla spoke, Elicia controlled the currier, making him apologize to Mrs. Bradley for the mistake. Then, after she sent him away and closed the door, she had the currier walk away. Once he was a good distance away from the residence, Elicia extracted her needle from his neck before dispelling both the needle and her thread.

In the next instant, the currier stumble forward. Luckily, before he could fall to the ground, he snapped back to his senses. Then, after shaking his head a few times, he looked around with a confused expression. However, since he could not feel that anything was wrong, other than seeming to be a little further on his way down the street than he remembered, he simply looked into his currier bag and pulled out a package before, moving on to his next destination.

"Ugh!" Elicia groaned while gripping her head with both hands. "My head hurts so bad."

["Well, at least you learned something new about my abilities."] Scylla replied. ["So, I'd call it an even trade."]

"Yeah, I don't think I would have been able to do that without you." Elicia replied. "I probably could have done it without releasing you, though."

["Maybe if you had managed to fully release my seal, that might be possible."] Scylla said in response. ["But until you can do that, I wouldn't try it without the partial release. Otherwise, there's a good chance you'd cripple, or outright kill, the person you're trying it on."]

"Selim~~~~~~! Wake up~~~!" Mrs. Bradley's scream echoed through the house before Elicia could respond to Scylla's assessment.

After that, Elicia heard the sound of Mrs. Bradley panicking as she tried to figure out what was wrong with Selim. Eventually, she could hear the older woman leaving the house in a hurry, undoubtedly taking Selim to get medical attention.

"*Sigh* I really feel bad for her." Elicia said in a tone filled with melancholy. "She was just an unsuspecting victim in all this. But because of our conflict with the homunculi, she's lost both her husband and son in only a couple months."

["I wanna say that's better than losing her life as a sacrifice for a Philosopher's Stone…"] Scylla replied in a similar tone. ["But honestly, I'm not sure I'd want to continue living if we lost Fonzie and our future child."]

"Yeah, me neither." Elicia replied as she leaned her head on the elevator's wall. "All the sudden, I miss Fonzie. I hope he, Erza, and Marin are doing okay."