Author's Note: Yuuki~desu! Waaah. I can't believe I actually wrote this down. Inspiration for this story came to me in a dream, day after I saw a beautiful Zeref amv. Hope you will like this story... Enjoy!

Chapter 1: Empty Utopia

He concentrated only on walking. He didn't pay attention to thorns tearing at his clothes and exposed skin.

He had to get away. Somewhere safe. Somewhere silent. Somewhere he would be alone. Just him. No humans, no dragons, no animals, no plants.

That was his idea of Utopia. Place where he wouldn't be able to hurt anyone. Kill anyone...

The dark haired man just continued walking in a daze. Trying not to look. He didn't want to see death that accompanied his steps.

Suddenly there was a rustling sound and a bunny jumped out of a bush. Right into the young man's path. The moment his eyes focused on the little creature, the man started wailing. "No. No. NOOOO!"

He couldn't stop it. He would take one more innocent life today. He just stood there, helplessly watching as the little white bunny's life got swallowed by black miasma. Miasma that came from his own body.

Crying, he bent down to the little white corpse and pressed it to his chest, asking it for forgiveness over and over again, until his words were only whispers stolen by light breeze ruffling his black hair and black monk robes.

Even after he had no voice to speak, he continued clutching the little lifeless fur ball to him. He used it as an anchor to remind him he had to stay in control. To fight. To find that place...

Back in his daze, he made his way deeper into forest, hopefully heading to mountains.

A cave would be nice... He thought solemnly. No. There would be bats and bears. And then he tried to think of another place and ended up talking himself out of it. He went on, reciting many possible safe havens in his head and then refusing them the next second.

It was a game to him. A game he played every day. Every single day during his long life. During the past 408 years. By now, he knew there wasn't a single place he hasn't removed from the list. Even so, he renewed the list every day. It was the only thing he could do to keep his sanity.

And so he went on, letting his feet carry him into oblivion.

Hours slowly passed and the cursed mage suddenly stopped. His eyes widened in recognition of the feeling that was building up inside him. It was close. The outburst was close.

He clenched his teeth and balled his fists. Why? Why? Why do I have to suffer so much? I only wanted to have enough strength to protect what is important to me! Sickening image of his father's body lying lifeless on the ground flashed before his eyes. I wanted to protect him!

And in the end, I became his Death...

Zeref let go of the animal corpse he was carrying and clutched his head, willing the images of countless deaths to disappear. It didn't work and he made himself open his eyes in hopes of not seeing the images as clearly.

His vision was blurry and he felt dizzy - signs of strong magical power outburst approaching. He tried to study his surroundings, wanting to make sure he was in a good, secluded area, before he let the deadly power expand.

It took all of his energy to get to a big oak in the middle of the tiny clearing. Then his legs gave away and he stayed there sitting on the ground with his back to the tree. His vision slowly started getting clearer. Soon...

That's when he saw it. A roof. He wasn't in a forest anymore. He unconsciously walked to a backyard of an enormous villa.

can't stay here. He knew that but he wasn't able to move even an inch.

Zeref was always trying to avoid human dwellings, not wanting to involve any innocent people in his affairs. They would try to help him and the moment they got close to him, their lives would be stolen. It has happened to him so many times...

Tips of his fingers started tingling with magic. Soon. Very soon. he thought bitterly, praying no one was in his vicinity.

He closed his eyes, not wanting to see the destruction he would leave behind. Instead, he focused on sounds around him. Birds chirping, few cicadas playing their love songs, gentle breeze blowing...

And a beautiful sound he hadn't heard for so long, complemented it all. It reminded him of delicate bells. So high pitched and positive... He wanted to know what it was so he concentrated on it more, ignoring everything else.

Something of his past was re-emerging, reacting to that sound. Memory so sweet and fleeting, he couldn't believe it was his. It was the day he was first shown his little brother. Such a fragile creature, crying out its displeasure in this world. His mother smiled encouragingly at him, shoving the bundle of unhappiness into his arms. The baby stopped crying a looked at him with big rounded eyes... And giggled.

That's right. That beautiful sound... A child's laugh...

He quickly opened his eyes, his momentary feeling of contentment vanishing in an instant.

There is a child close! He pushed his body to its limit but only managed to rise few inches off the ground when he collapsed back, panting. The outburst was really close and to his horror, he found out that so is the child.

Zeref was scared. Horrified, even. He has never killed a child and that might change any moment now. He thought about yelling at that kid to run away, but it might not listen to him. Even worse, could come to him because of it.

The mage was desperately trying to hold back the outburst of deadly magic as long as he could, hoping the kid would just pass by him.

How wrong he was.

He could see a ball flying up and down, up and down all over again from where he was sitting. The kid was moving, but it was a slow progress.

Zeref was only twenty feet away from the place the child was playing. If that child so much as turns... He refused to think about it.

He hoped. Something he hadn't done in a long time. He hoped the kid would just run. Run far away from him and its death.

The ball was still repeating its sequence of up and down and the mage was a bit relieved to see that the movement gained speed, making the child walk faster.

And suddenly, the ball disappeared. It didn't go up anymore. Please, tell me the kid is holding the ball...

Obviously, it wasn't his lucky day as the pink ball emerged from under a bush right next to the child's supposed location and stopped 14 feet away from him at the clearing.

No. No. No. NO! NOOOO!