Deliora

"Whew, finally here! I didn't expect it to be so far. I must be outside the Kingdom of Fiore by now!"

After a long, roundabout journey and many days aboard a little train, Eleven had finally reached his destination. Looking at the snow-covered city before him, much larger than Magnolia, he let out a long breath of warm air.

This was the first time Eleven had traveled so far. Who would have thought that the child who had huddled in the orphanage courtyard a year ago, too afraid to go outside, could now travel abroad on his own?

Without wasting time sightseeing in a foreign land, Eleven went straight to report to the client.

"What? The job's already over?"

Eleven's shouting drew pointing fingers and stares from passersby. Before he could even enter the gates of the city hall that had posted the request, a guard stopped him and told him the job was already over.

Eleven looked around and saw quite a few disappointed mages. Clearly, they too had been turned away for arriving late. Of course, there were also a few people showing off their money pouches, evidently flaunting their spoils to those who had arrived late.

Looking north of the city, toward the forest, Eleven saw quite a few piles of magical beast corpses, heaped as high as small mountains. Soldiers were busily dealing with them. Eleven scratched his head in frustration.

This place was simply too far from Fairy Tail's headquarters. Who knew how much time had been wasted waiting for the news to reach him, accepting the job, and making the trip? It was understandable that nearby mages had already completed it. Seriously, why hadn't he thought of that beforehand?

But now that he was here, was he really going to take the little train straight back?

Eleven gazed at the vast forest in the distance and remembered Makarov's words. The youthful urge for adventure began to stir within him. Although his previous life could be said to be a complete blank, Eleven's mental age and way of thinking were a little more mature than those of an eleven-year-old. Well, they had pretty much stopped right at the rebellious stage. After getting used to this world, Eleven's personality had gradually grown more lively. He definitely wouldn't be as well-behaved and obedient as other eleven-year-olds. He wasn't a little terror, but he could be really mischievous at times.

"Nothing unusual within thirty kilometers?"

Standing at the forest entrance, Eleven released his Spiritual Power without restraint, probing deep into the woods. After a year of growth, he could now focus his Spiritual Power in a single direction, and its range had increased considerably as well.

"Hehe, then let's go deeper and have a look."

Three days later...

Eleven hadn't walked very quickly, and he had wandered this way and that, but over three days he had still made it more than a hundred kilometers into the forest. He looked somewhat bedraggled, with leaves caught in his hair and disappointment written all over his little face.

Eleven muttered to himself, "Sigh, one last search. If I still don't find anything, I'll go back."

His Spiritual Power surged out from his mind once more, spreading ahead of him. With no visibility in the forest these past three days, he had been able to rely only on his Spiritual Power to find his way. He had used it to search countless times, only to be disappointed every time.

"Wait, are those city defense troops? What are they doing here?"

This time, he finally found something out of the ordinary. Eleven had discovered a large number of troops, and they seemed to be surrounding something. But when he sent his Spiritual Power over to investigate, he found a "black hole" at the center of the troops.

It wasn't that there was actually a black hole. Rather, Eleven's Spiritual Power couldn't get anywhere near that area. If he forced it to probe farther, it would be rapidly compressed and instantly annihilated. Thus, a pitch-black area had formed in Eleven's mind.

What on earth is that? Eleven was intensely curious and felt an urge to see it with his own eyes. So he used his Spiritual Power to conceal himself and raced toward the area.

"Master, will this really be enough?"

A tall knight in silver armor quietly questioned an old man holding a staff beside him. The sweat on his forehead showed just how nervous he was.

A gigantic, pitch-black monster lay prone before them. It seemed to be asleep, but it made no effort to contain its evil, terrifying aura, letting it spread without restraint. The ordinary soldiers around it seemed too afraid of that aura to approach.

Numerous magic arrays had been laid out around the monster, packed so densely that the sight made one's scalp tighten. The arrays were presumably the old man's handiwork.

"Sigh, if only it were that easy. All we can do is try our best!" The old man sighed, his brow deeply furrowed. "The order to evacuate the citizens has been issued, hasn't it?"

"Yes, the order has been passed down."

"Sigh... I hope fewer people will die! You have to understand, that's Deliora, a demon from the legendary Book of Zeref!"

At that moment, Eleven was hiding in a tree canopy, secretly watching. The monster's chilling aura frightened him so badly that he didn't dare move. A great terror unlike anything he had ever felt before descended upon him. He couldn't sense any emotion from the monster before him, only an exceptionally pure evil!

Just then, the black monster suddenly stirred, and a nauseating aura spread out. The knight and the old mage braced themselves as if facing a formidable enemy, and the surrounding soldiers immediately went on alert.

Run!!

That was the only command Eleven's brain gave him. Without waiting to see what the monster did next or caring what would become of the old mage and the others, Eleven turned and ran almost without thinking.

After taking a couple of steps, Eleven felt he was still too slow. No longer caring whether he exposed himself, he used his telekinesis to fly above the treetops and sped away. At that moment, only one thought filled his mind: Get back alive.

Not long after Eleven fled, several magic arrays suddenly lit up behind him, rising layer upon layer into the sky. Immediately afterward, a roar shook the heavens. Birds all around had only just taken flight when the sound shook them to death.

Flying through the sky, Eleven was almost knocked down by the roar as well. He hurriedly increased his output to steady himself. The monster's roar alone had nearly shattered his Spiritual Power. He didn't even dare look back. This was definitely not an opponent he could face as he was now; the only thing he could do was flee for his life.

Brago City soon appeared before him. Eleven saw that the citizens were moving at an unhurried pace. To these ordinary people, the army's evacuation order was nothing more than a written notice, and it failed to create any sense of urgency.

Looking at the crowd flowing slowly below like ants, Eleven grew frantic. Perhaps because he had put some distance between himself and the monster, his urge to flee had weakened a little. He shouted from the sky, hoping people would move faster, but instead he drew a crowd beneath his feet, marveling that there was a little flying boy here.

As if in response to Eleven's words, an earth-shaking explosion swept over them, accompanied by an even louder roar that made the entire ground tremble.

Eleven's heart tightened. He looked back for the first time, only to see that the monster had somehow broken free of the magic arrays and leaped into the air. An immensely thick laser beam erupted from its mouth.

Terror left Eleven unable to move an inch. As the monster swung its head, the laser from its mouth tore through the earth from a hundred kilometers away, swept past Eleven, and continued until it had split the entire city in two.