Regression Curse! Little Jiang Bai Shrinks
At the rocky bend of the frozen canyon.
Heavy, slow footsteps echoed from the shadows, each step accompanied by the crisp sound of boot soles crushing the frozen ground.
A tall, robust figure emerged from the shadows and stepped into the sunlight.
The newcomer had long, black hair combed back and tied up, with bare broad shoulders and a muscular chest. A striking power switch-like pattern was branded on the center of his forehead, and a tight black metal mask covered the lower half of his face.
He exuded a violent and oppressive aura, looking down at the Fairy Tail members from his high position.
Gray crossed his right hand across his chest, immediately assuming a fighting stance.
"Who are you?"
Natsu started yelling with a look of disgust.
"What's going on today? We couldn't see a soul in this village at first, and now suddenly there are hordes of monsters popping up everywhere!"
Natsu muttered to himself as he twitched his nostrils and took a deep sniff of the scent wafting through the air.
The next second, Natsu's expression changed, and he pointed at the person's nose and shouted loudly.
"Etc!"
"The smell on you... you're not even human!"
The person stopped, crossed their arms, and a deep, rough laugh came from beneath the metal mask.
"Oh? You can smell it just by your nose? Dragon Slayer really do have a keen sense of smell."
The monster spread out its two thick arms, making no attempt to hide anything, and readily admitted it.
"But it doesn't matter, you're all going to die here today anyway."
"That's right, I'm not some lowly, fragile human; I'm a demon born from the Book of Zeref!"
"Remember this well, my name is Deliora!"
Natsu clenched his fist, sparks crackling and exploding on the back of his hand.
Deliora turned his thick neck, ignoring Natsu and Gray, and scanned the group before fixing his gaze on the black-haired youth standing directly in front.
"You're the human that Lord Kyoka specifically instructed me to be, aren't you?"
"Jiang Bai, the legendary mage renowned throughout the entire continent, hailed as the strongest human in the world?"
Upon hearing the demon utter his name, Jiang Bai calmly sized up the demon before him.
"My fame has actually reached the ears of those demons at the Tartaros?"
Jiang Bai tilted his head and asked in a lighthearted, teasing tone.
"Should I be polite and praise your intelligence department for doing a great job?"
Natsu stood two steps away, quietly stretched his neck and whispered in Lucy's ear.
"Hey Lucy, I always feel like Jiang Bai talks to everyone the same way, he's so annoying."
Lucy was initially full of agreement and was just about to nod in agreement.
I glanced up.
Jiang Bai had turned his head at some point and was now watching the two of them with a smile.
Lucy shuddered and instantly displayed her incredible speed in changing her expression, putting her hands on her hips and loudly refuting Natsu with righteous indignation.
"Natsu, what nonsense are you spouting!"
Jiang Bai was absolutely incredibly handsome just now!
Natsu was met with a cold, indifferent smile from Jiang Bai, and the hairs on the back of his neck instantly stood on end. He stood at attention and, mimicking Happy's signature tone, quickly surrendered.
"Hey! Lucy's right! That's exactly what we meant!"
The two cats, watching these two clowns, both sighed in unison.
Deliora looked at the group of humans before him, who seemed oblivious to the impending doom, and let out a sneer of contempt from beneath his mask.
"After hearing Lord Kyoka praise you to the skies, I thought you were some kind of ancient monster with three heads and six arms."
"Seeing it with my own eyes today was utterly disappointing; it's nothing special."
Deliora's words were not just empty boasting.
Demons are ultimately crude and violent creations, their perception not even comparable to one of Old Man Warrod's toes.
Within Deliora's limited sensory range, Jiang Bai couldn't detect the slightest surge of magic power throughout his body. He was as ordinary and unremarkable as a weak villager, at most having a tall and slender figure and an otherworldly appearance.
In Deliora's view, the energy fluctuations contained within the two little girls standing next to Jiang Bai, and even the two winged kittens, were much more obvious than those within Jiang Bai.
This guy, who exudes absolutely no energy, is clearly just a pretty face with no substance.
Jiang Bai put his hands back in his pockets, too lazy to even move an inch.
"Yeah."
"Since you think I'm nothing special, then feel free to come and try."
A violent and fierce glint appeared in Deliora's eyes.
Despite his verbal mockery and belittling, this demon showed no mercy the moment he actually attacked.
As a member of the Tartaros, he has survived to this day solely due to his ruthless and insidious fighting instincts.
Even a lion uses its full strength to hunt a rabbit, so Deliora decided to use his most insidious killing move to cripple this so-called strongest man on the continent on the spot.
Deliora stomped heavily on the ground, the power pattern on his forehead glowing with an eerie dark yellow light.
This is not a magic circle used by mages; no runes or elemental ripples appeared in the air.
This is a special ability unique to demons— Curse!
"Just degenerate into a weak little brat like me!!"
Deliora thrust his arms forward with a sudden burst, and eerie, dark yellow ripples surged from his palms, traversing spatial distances and enveloping Jiang Bai's entire body.
A demon-exclusive Curse — the Curse of Regression!
Forcibly reversing the target's life form, unconditionally regressing the target's body back to the stage of infancy or childhood.
While intelligence and memory can be preserved intact, the strength of muscles, speed of movement, endurance to withstand blows, and even the total amount of magic power stored in the body will be weakened by a full tenfold under the forceful suppression of this Curse!
A dark yellow light enveloped Jiang Bai's body.
Lucy was startled and quickly reached out to grab him.
"Jiang Bai! Watch out!!"
However, the light faded very quickly.
Under everyone's gaze, Jiang Bai's originally tall and slender adult figure rapidly shrank and collapsed.
The loose black robe and casual trousers lost their support due to the sudden drop in size, and dragged loosely on the ground. The originally well-fitting black coat had become a floor-length robe.
Clatter
A delicate, exquisitely crafted hand emerged from the wide sleeve, laboriously pulling down the collar that was obscuring the view.
Jiang Bai looked down at his small, chubby, white hands, then down at his short-legged body that had shrunk to the size of a five or six-year-old child, and moved his rounded wrists.
"Hmm? This thing is kind of interesting."
Jiang Bai's voice also changed from his original clear and deep youthful voice to a slightly childish and innocent boyish voice.
The entire venue fell into a brief silence.
The expected brutal battle scenes of flying blood and gore did not materialize at all.
Lucy, Wendy, and Carla, who were initially wary and on guard, suddenly lost control of their natural instincts towards the tiny, adorable creature the moment they saw the shrunken version of Jiang Bai.
"Aaaaaah--!"
Lucy cupped her cheeks in her hands and jumped up on the spot, her eyes practically spitting out pink hearts.
"Jiang Bai... Jiang Bai has actually shrunk!!"
Wendy clenched her little hands in front of her chest, her face flushed red, and quickly stepped forward, squatting down to stare at the little boy on the ground with her big, blinking eyes.
"So cute! Jiang Bai was actually this adorable as a child!!"
Carla hovered beside him with her arms crossed, her gaze fixed on Jiang Bai's chubby, round face, and nodded approvingly.
"Well... although my personality is extremely awful normally, I have to admit that I was quite good-looking as a child."
Lucy couldn't contain her wildly beating girlish heart and immediately bent down and squatted on the ground.
Extend your index finger.
Stamp!
Without any hesitation, Lucy poked Jiang Bai's chubby, fair cheek with her finger. The soft touch almost melted Lucy's heart.
"So soft! It feels amazing!!"
Wendy, not to be outdone, deftly unfastened the small backpack on her back, rummaged through it, and pulled out a delicate and compact portable magic camera.
Click! Click! Click!
The white magic flashlight flashed wildly at the scaled-down version of Jiang Bai.
Wendy skillfully adjusted the focus while snapping photos from multiple angles, all the while muttering to herself.
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime, precious scene! We absolutely have to develop it and send it to Mira and Erza! They'll be ecstatic!!"
Happy craned his neck to join in the fun.
"Wendy, Wendy! Take a picture of us too! We want to stand on top of Jiang Bai's head for a group photo!"
Jiang Bai's face instantly darkened.
Raising his short right arm, he slapped away Lucy's hands, which were still pinching and squeezing his face, and casually rolled up his trouser leg, which was dragging on the ground, twice.
That's enough, you lot! Stop fooling around!
Although the tone was stern, the soft, clear child's voice made it sound not only less intimidating but also more adorably fierce.
Lucy held her heart in her hands, almost melting from the cuteness.
The demon Deliora, standing not far away, was originally waiting to enjoy the ugly spectacle of the human powerhouse's despair and collapse.
What appeared to be a farcical scene of everyone happily taking photos, checking in, and pinching each other's cheeks on a picnic.
The villain's authority and dignity were trampled and crushed into the mud at this moment.
The veins on Deliora's forehead bulged wildly, his metal mask trembled violently, his right foot stomped the ground, leaving a deep crack, and he roared furiously in a hoarse voice.
"Hey!! You damn human brats!!"
"Are you blind?! My Regression Curse has completely turned you into a helpless little brat!!"
"Strength, speed, and magic have all plummeted! And you still don't take me seriously?!"