Daphne

Well, although this place feels like a ghost town, Eleven can clearly sense the mental fluctuations of those invisible people. They are not as still as the souls of the dead; on the contrary, they are very active, as if they are very excited.

Eleven sensed no malice from them. If it weren't for their completely transparent bodies and inability to make a sound, they would have seemed no different from a group of warm and hospitable citizens.

At this moment, a transparent figure standing at the very front seemed to be trying to gather magic power. His figure gradually solidified into a faint outline, leaving a blurry shadow on the wall in the afterglow of the setting sun.

"Young man, can you see us?" the figure actually spoke, though the voice sounded somewhat muffled.

"Uh, I can only sense a little bit. Who are you people?" Eleven asked curiously, examining the illusory figure.

But before the shadow could answer, Natsu, who had noticed them, ran over. "Wow, the shadow on the wall is talking! Is it a monster?"

"Hehe, we're residents of this town." Shadow was very polite; instead of being angry at Natsu's words, he even took off his hat and bowed to Eleven others, "Hello!"

"Huh? You're just a shadow, aren't you?" Natsu was startled by the speaking shadow and couldn't help but retort.

Shadow hurriedly waved his hands, explaining nervously, "No, no, it's because of the Concealment Magic... that you can't see... my body."

The shadow spoke haltingly, as if it were using magic to suppress something, and seemed to be struggling to do so.

However, Natsu didn't notice this at all, clutching his head in confusion. "Eh, I don't understand what you're talking about. If it's magic, just undo it, okay?"

"No, no, no, it's because... I couldn't... do it that I stopped you..." Shadow's voice became increasingly strained and intermittent.

Seeing that the shadows were having so much trouble speaking, Eleven simply used his Spiritual Power to connect with their consciousness and activated his Telepathy skill. This not only made communication easier but also allowed him to probe the true thoughts of the invisible people in front of him—killing two birds with one stone. Incidentally, Natsu was also pulled into the chat group.

"This should make communication easier, right? Can you hear me?" Eleven conveyed his meaning by Telepathy.

The shadow was clearly stunned for a moment, and you could feel his magic weakening. The next second, the shadow on the wall completely disappeared, and he returned to his previous invisible state.

"Is this Telepathy Magic? Thank you so much! I am the mayor of this town, my name is..."

Before the transparent mayor could finish speaking, Natsu suddenly clutched his head and yelled, "Whoa! A voice got into my head! Someone's talking in my head! Eleven, did you do this?"

Eleven glanced at him. "I did it. Quiet down for a bit, let him finish speaking."

"Oh, okay! That's amazing! Is that magic too? Eleven, how did you do that? Can you teach me? I want to too..."

Natsu has been removed from the group chat.

"Mayor, please continue. How did things come to this?" Ignoring Natsu's displeased expression, Eleven continued to communicate with the mayor Telepathy.

"Well, it's a long story. May I ask who you are first?"

"My name is Eleven, and this is Natsu." Eleven pointed to the bewildered Natsu beside him, then raised his right hand, revealing the guild crest on his forearm. "We are mages from Fairy Tail, here for the mission you issued."

"Ah, so it's the Fairy Tail mages! That's wonderful!" The transparent mayor was thrilled to receive this answer. "Fairy Tail mages, could you please accept our request again and help us break this curse?"

"Eh? Curse magic? Uh, I don't know how to undo curses. Maybe someone in the guild is good at it. If you can wait a bit, I can go back to the guild and find someone to help you." Eleven was a kind-hearted person, and he was always happy to lend a helping hand to those in trouble.

"Yes, yes, we can wait, but we don't need to find a mage who can lift the curse. We just need to defeat a woman who controls dragons." The mayor casually uttered these shocking words.

"A dragon?!" Eleven was so surprised he couldn't even control his expression, and subconsciously glanced at Natsu, who was still looking completely bewildered. "Are you kidding me? Can someone really control a dragon?"

"I'm serious, Mr. Eleven." The transparent mayor's tone gradually became serious. "Her name is Daphne."

"He is a mad magical scientist who is obsessed with dragons and even wants to create artificial dragons."

"In order to create a real dragon, she kept creating all sorts of artificial monsters. The monster egg on the mountain behind our town was her masterpiece."

"Not long ago, the monsters on the mountain hatched. Daphne, in order to test the strength of the monsters, actually controlled a horde of them to invade the town, wreaking havoc on the town that raised her."

At this point, the mayor's emotions fluctuated greatly; he was clearly experiencing extreme anger and sorrow.

"Fortunately, everyone in our town possesses a magic called 'Concealment,' which Daphne knows. It seems she wants to test whether the monsters she created can detect us when we 'Concealment."

"Clearly, her experiment failed. The residents successfully evaded the monster's pursuit using Concealment Magic; not a single person was found by the monster."

"But it was precisely because of this that Daphne was enraged. She cast a powerful curse on us, making it impossible for us to break the Concealment Magic, and forcing us to live forever silently, unseen, and intangible."

"The monsters she created were abandoned by her because they couldn't find us, who were Concealment. The red crystals on the ground are the remains of those monsters."

Throughout the mayor's explanation, Eleven listened intently without uttering a word. Fortunately, things didn't seem to be as complicated as he had imagined; it was just an artificial dragon, not a real one.

"Therefore, Mr. Eleven, I hope I can ask you to return to the guild and request someone to defeat Daphne and rescue us. We will certainly not skimp on the reward..."

"Mayor, there's no need to go to so much trouble. Leave this task to us!" Eleven interrupted the mayor, saying confidently, "This was originally supposed to be a follow-up to our mission. The mages of Fairy Tail Guild won't abandon a mission halfway through."