Chapter Two: Terror of the Village; Scarlet to the Rescue!

Something wasn't right about this forest, I mean, besides the infestation of monsters. I'd finally created a shelter with Wood Make Magic, and when I left to continue in search of the end of the forest, I came across it again, even though I'd been traveling in the same direction away from it.

The only explanation I could think of was that something was distorting my senses to make me run in circles without realizing it. That would explain why the forest seemed so endless, because I'd never made any real progress through it. Either that, or the forest was magical enough to literally bend time and space to prevent me from getting out, in which case I was screwed.

But assuming that the first theory was correct, there had to be some way to negate the effects. Perhaps Severance Magic would be able to cut through the distortion of my senses, or maybe if I set up a Domain with Alkashi Runes, it would block out the effect...

I propelled myself above the canopies with Wind Magic and held myself there with Flight Magic, looking out over the endless trees. First things first, before I set up complicated runic arrays that would take weeks to complete, some tests were in order.

"Dispel." I murmured, flaring my magic in a small burst. The effect was immediate as everything around me warped and rippled outwards. I clutched my head and shut my eyes at the nauseating sensation of the world twisting around me.

When I reopened my eyes, everything around me felt clearer, as though I'd put on glasses for the first time. To my left, I could see the trees begin to thin out into grasslands. I didn't have a mirror, but I'm sure my eyes were wide enough to pass as their own moons.

A year and a half stuck in this thrice-be-damned forest, and the key to getting out was casting Dispel on myself? The most basic of the basic? I'd spent months toiling over complex Lost Magics when the answer was that simple?! A scream of some emotion between frustration, relief, and unbridled fury tore out of my throat.

"Fucking trees!"

/

Three minutes of high speed flight saw me out of the accursed woodlands, never to return. Like hell I was ever going back in there! Hopefully I would come across someone to help me get back home. Goodness, I hadn't spoken to another human being in over a year and a half! This was going to be awkward.

I didn't take me long to find a human settlement, though it was not terribly impressive. It was just a tiny, ramshackle village, with maybe twenty odd houses made of thin wooden beams and thatch. I lowered myself to the ground from a safe distance away. I wasn't sure how the people would react if I simply flew in.

I was surely not in America, as I couldn't think where I would be able to find such a quaint little secluded village like this anywhere in the country. Perhaps I was somewhere in Africa? But it didn't feel particularly hot... Maybe the locals could help me, if they even spoke English.

It took me a few minutes to walk all the way to the village at a reasonable (read: humanly possible) pace from a distance where they wouldn't see me land. When I finally did come close enough for a more detailed look at the place, there were a few things that set me on edge.

For one, the place was more than just rundown; it looked as though the entire village had been hit by a tornado and they'd only just started rebuilding. The people themselves also seemed to have an air of skittishness about them, even from a distance. It only became clearer as I drew closer. Something had happened to wreck the place, and whatever it was, it had spooked the villagers more than just a bit.

Eventually, one of the people spotted me, a child, by the looks of it. It didn't take long until the entire village was pointing at me and most likely chatting to each other about why a random little kid was wandering around by their village. Going by their pale skin, it seemed I wasn't in Africa.

When I came close enough to make out their faces, a man in a ragged cloak with a white beard reaching down to his chest beckoned me towards him with a staff of thick, knotted wood. The village elder, perhaps? I came to a stop a couple feet in front of him.

"Hello, Sir," I said respectfully, staring at my toes and shifting uncomfortably. "could you please tell me where I am?"

"This is the Village of Alnerwick, Child, on the east side of the Fiore Kingdom." he answered, to which I stared blankly at him. "How did you come to find yourself in such a secluded place as this? It must have been terribly difficult to come here with the nearest town fifty miles away. Here, come join me in my tent."

With that, the bald old man turned around and started towards a small hut-like structure with animal skin for walls and a little opening for a door. Cocking my head to the side in curiosity, I followed after him. Why was the village stating at me so strangely? Even if I was a stranger, surely they'd had other visitors before?

The inside of the old man's 'tent' was cozy, with a fur carpet draped over the ground. A few tall, wooden poles stood in the center, supporting the entire building. I plopped into a seat on the soft fur.

"I'm afraid I have very little to offer you, child." he continued. "Alnerwick is facing difficult times right now. At the very least, I can give you a bit of food and water, and something to wear as well."

I looked down at my naked body. Ah, clothes, that was right. I hadn't worn anything in so long, it just felt natural. He provided me some ragged pants and a shirt, before he placed a bowl of stew in front of me.

"Thank you for the clothes, Sir." I said quietly. "But I don't need food or water. I just wanted to know where I am."

"Please, enough with the 'Sir', you can call me Albrecht." he replied. "And what is your name, child?"

"I am Brian." I answered.

"Well, Brian," Albrecht inhaled deeply and let out his breath slowly before he continued. "can you tell me where your home is?"

"Yes, I live in Amherst, New York, America." I replied shortly.

"What a peculiar name for a place." he remarked. "I can't say that I've ever heard of it."

"You said that we're in eastern Fiore?" I said, to which he nodded. "Can you tell me where Fiore is?"

"You don't know where Fiore is?" said Albrecht, his eyes widening. "It's the country you're in right now, a part of the continent of Ishgar."

"Hmm, I see." I lied. A new continent? Was I even on the same planet? My eyebrows flew into my hairline as I realized that it wasn't impossible. After all, I'd just woken up here with no clothes, a younger body, and a magic book.

"Well, wherever you come from, I think the only thing which could transport someone across a country would be powerful magic. Have you come across any mages recently?" asked Albrecht.

I shook my head 'no.' Apparently, magic was something common enough to speak casually about in 'Ishgar', wherever that was. Perhaps wizards weren't so uncommon here. That put a definite damper on my idea of being the most powerful wizard of all time. I was still just a neophyte, after all.

"Hmm, well regardless of that, I'm afraid you can't stay here. It isn't safe. Recently, a huge beast has been terrorizing the village, and it even killed two of us in its last attack." said Albrecht. "We've sent out a mission request for an S-class wizard to come and slay it, as no mage has yet managed to best it. You must flee as soon as you can!"

My eyes widened at the mention of an S-class wizard. According to the Compendium, S-class was the highest rank a wizard could receive, after years and years of arduous training, and with a certain level of innate talent as well. Becoming S-class meant that a mage had begun to reach their full potential. If there was a monster terrible enough to require someone like that to have to come and take care of it, then there was no way I'd even be able to scratch it!

/

Five minutes later, I was wearing the clothes Albrecht had given me and sprinting as quickly as I could, boosted with Wind Magic. I came across one of the monsters that inhabited the forest I'd grown so used to. Apparently, it'd also managed to find a way out.

I didn't have time to spare on small fry like this with a terrible monster on the loose! Though it was absolutely enormous, there was nothing particularly dangerous about it except for its talons and teeth. A combination of Pressure Magic to exert a force on the beast and Voice Enchant Magic to scream impossibly loudly at it caused the creature to flee as quickly as it could. I didn't even have to slow my pace for it.

I kept a close eye behind me and to my sides for the monster Albrecht had warned me about. Thankfully, I hadn't spotted anything yet. I was so focused on these areas, however, that I failed to pay adequate attention to my front.

As such, it was quite a surprise when I crashed head-first into something solid and harder than my head. I bounced backward a good foot in recoil and jumped up to my feet. Was this the monster?! I crouched down and prepared to leap backward a few dozen feet, but stopped dead in my tracks.

It wasn't a monster. She was a person. Long red hair cascaded behind her head as sharp brown eyes stared curiously back at me. She was clad in an iron breastplate and armored gloves that extended up to her elbow. Her lower half was unprotected, with only a blue skirt and long, black boots. I admit I was a bit stricken by her beauty. My only excuse was that I hadn't seen anyone at all in over a year, and she could've easily passed for a model.

"A-ah, I'm so sorry, Ma'am!" I exclaimed, regaining my bearings. "I should've looked where I was going."

"That's alright." she replied, a bit stiffly, though she didn't sound offended. "It's only natural for people to make mistakes."

"Thank you, Miss." I said. "Oh, wait a minute, you're in danger too, Miss. The old man at the village told me a horrible monster was around here! And the entire village was wrecked too, so he wasn't joking around either! We have to get out of here!"

"A horrible monster attacked a village, you say?" she asked. "It seems I'm in the right place, then."

"Huh?" I blinked a few times in rapid succession.

"Alnerwick village contacted the guild that there was a powerful monster on the loose here." she explained. "I was the only S-class mage there at the time, so I decided to come."

"Y-you're... an S-class mage?" I repeated in awe.

"Indeed." she answered. "My name is Erza Scarlet. What is yours?"

"Brian." I replied. "Just Brian."

"Well then, Brian, it's not safe for children like you to be wandering around with an S-class monster nearby, even if you're trying to get away from it." said Erza. "You can accompany me until I've slain it."

"Really, you'd do that?" I asked excitedly. This could be my only chance to observe a real S-class mage in battle!

"Of course." said Erza. "It would be irresponsible of me to leave you here in danger, after all."

"Thank you so much!" I said, practically clinging to her waist. It would probably have been more awkward had I looked my actual age, but as it were she just chuckled and ruffled my hair.

The trek back to the village took over an hour, as we were walking and not sprinting at half the speed of sound. But when we finally did end up back there, I allowed Erza to talk with Albrecht about the monster, imagining all the different types of magic she must have mastered. At least, I didn't pay attention until the old man started to describe the beast.

"It was gigantic– fifty times larger than a horse!" he recalled. "Its four legs were talons like an eagle's, but its body is like a bear, covered in fur and bulging muscles. Its head is like a dragon, with sharp eyes and sharper teeth, and its tail is large enough to crush a house!"

"Very well," said Erza. "I will be on the look out for talon-shaped footprints and other signs of the monster."

Talons, furry body, reptilian head, giant tail— that was the same monster I'd dismissed as small fry! I'd already killed dozens of them in the forest, they weren't even among the top ten strongest monsters there! Had the village really called in an S-class wizard for something like that? I couldn't help but slap my forehead at the sheer overkill of that.

"Is something the matter, Brian?" asked Erza, leveling me with a searching gaze. I almost took a step back from the intensity of it.

"No, everything is fine, Miss Scarlet." I said, to which she gave a curt nod.

"In that case, I will begin my hunt for it now." said Erza. "Albrecht-san, please watch over young Brian here while I'm away. It's dangerous for a young child to be on his own with such a dangerous monster lurking around."

"Oh, y-yes, of course." stammered Albrecht, most likely thinking of how he himself had been the one to send me fleeing on my own. In my panicked haze, I hadn't realized how dangerous it could've been for me if the monster had actually been S-class.

/

I spent a few hours huddled with three other children in another small hut. One of the adults was trying to entertain us with games and stories. He was admittedly quite the storyteller, and the other three children were held in rapture of his tales, but the same could not be said of myself. With a mental age of fifteen, I found little interest in the cookie-cutter fairy tales made to entertain simpleminded children.

Of course, I looked just as simpleminded as any of the other children, what with my tiny body, ragged hair, and shy demeanor. It was all an act, though, as it would raise questions for someone who for all intents and purposes still looked like an eight-year-old to act as though he was fifteen. The fact that I was pretending to be an eight-year-old out of my own free will did not help me out of my boredom in the slightest.

"... And then the prince took back their firstborn and the prince and princess lived happily ever after. The End." finished the storyteller, shooting us all a bright smile. "Now, does anyone have any questions about the story?"

An idea flashed into my head as I hid a devious smirk and raised my hand, my face the picture of innocent youth. Luckily, none of the other children had any questions, so I was called on immediately.

"How did the prince and the princess make a baby together?" I asked, tilting my head to the left.

The blush that flared across the storyteller's face as he tried to splutter out an answer was enough to make me stifle a round of giggles that threatened to come splurging out.

"W-well, um, w-when the prince and the princess got married, they had a special ceremony where they make a baby by taking a little bit of the daddy and putting it in the mommy's belly." he explained, sweat gathering on his forehead.

Nice save, I thought, commendable even, but I haven't finished with you yet.

"Ohhhhh," I said, as if coming to a great realization. "So that's what Mommy and Daddy were doing when he put his private part in her mouth and told her to swallow everything. I was gonna ask them, but I didn't want them to find me hiding under their bed."

The expression on his face was priceless, a mix of horror and awkwardness that he just couldn't seem to recover from.

"Eewwww!" the other kids whined in unison. "That's gross!"

"Eh, you never know." I said, shrugging. "Daddy looked really, really happy when he was doing it."

"A-anyways!" interrupted the storyteller, three octaves above his usual voice. "The next story is called 'The Castle of the Cloud.'"

He was interrupted by another villager poking her head through the entry-hole. I could tell immediately that something exciting had happened by her visage.

"The S-class wizard just slew the monster and came back with its body!" she exclaimed. "We're saved!"

Immediately, the children all rushed out of the hut, grinning widely and hobbling on their tiny legs. I followed after them, wondering if perhaps I'd been mistaken and there really was a different monster out there.

But I was disappointed. Erza Scarlet stood beside the beaten and bloody carcass of the very same monster I'd scared off in my haste to leave several hours ago. What surprised me, however, was that she also looked a bit roughed up as well. It was nowhere near as much as her foe, but even still... Was this really an S-class mage?

"So much for 'pinnacle of magic power,' huh." I muttered. "Geez, I need to get to a city or something, find out more information about this 'Ishgar' place."

I was drawn out of my musings as the village elder, Albrecht, came forward with tears in his eyes. Personally, I couldn't think of a monster like that as such a big deal (having killed quite a few of them myself), but then I suppose it had wrecked he village, so it made sense for them to be emotional about it.

"Thank you so much, Erza-sama." he cried, then reached into his cloak and brought out something small and shiny. "As promised, we give you this treasured artifact which the village of Alnerwick has kept hidden for centuries."

"It was no problem, Albrecht-san." said Erza, accepting the artifact. "I must be returning to my guild, though, so I will take my leave. I bid you well."

"And you as well, good mage." replied Albrecht, lowering his head.

Realizing that this could be my ticket into civilization, I rushed forward until I was right next to Erza. I tugged lightly on her skirt and she looked down at me with mild curiosity.

"Um, Miss Erza," I said. "do you think I could come with you?"

"Come with me?" she echoed. "But aren't you a part of this village? Why would you wish to leave."

"I, uhh, I'm actually not." I replied. "I just stumbled across them and they gave me some clothes."

"Is this true?" said Erza, looking pointedly at Albrecht. At his nod, she turned back to me. "Where are you from, then, Brian? Where are your parents?"

"My home... is far, far away, farther than you can imagine." I said, trailing off. "I don't have any parents, though, so there's no need to worry about that."

"No parents... Perhaps it would be best to take you with me..." said Erza, humming noncommittally. "Very well, you may accompany me back to Magnolia Town. I will let the master decide what to do with you."

"Oh, thank you, Miss Erza!" I said, smiling brightly. "But before we go, I just wanted to ask you, are you really an S-class mage?"

"Yes, I am." she answered easily. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh, nothing," I said hurriedly, waving my hands out vigorously in a placating gesture. "I just don't realize why an S-class wizard was called in to deal with such a weak monster."

There were a few seconds of dead silence. Had I said something wrong?

"I mean, I even came across it while I was running away and I never even considered that it was the monster attacking the village, so I just scared it off and kept on going, and—" I rambled nervously.

"You scared it off?" said Erza, raising a dubious eyebrow. "How did you do that?"

"Oh, that?" I said. "It's not too hard. Once you know what something is afraid of, you can just imitate it and emphasize the scarier parts with magic. The Pressure Magic helps a lot too, I guess."

"Oh? Would you care to give us all a demonstration?" she asked, her lips curling up ever so slightly. She didn't believe me!

I took in a deep breath and closed my eyes. How would I go about doing this? Illusion Magic on the eyes and the shadows, then Voice Enchant and Pressure Magic to add to the intimidation factor... Yes, that would work.

I let out a dark chuckle. A subtle Voice Enchant made it sound far deeper than anything my tiny voice box could produce naturally, deeper and louder and raspier. It was perfect. Then came the Pressure Magic, exerting a powerful force on everything around me, pushing it all to the ground. Erza didn't seem very affected, but the villagers were all on their hands and knees.

Next was the Illusion Magic. When I opened my eyes, they were a solid black, completely empty. My shadow appeared to twist and warp into something huge and monstrous. I grinned savagely.

"I am the demon Ashmedai, King of the Nine Hells!" I roared. "You tiny creatures that dwell in the light, clinging to your feeble suns, which die, in the end; ONLY THE DARKNESS REMAINS! My legions will march across the lands. Your cities and kingdoms will drown beneath crashing waves. The fires will rage until there is only ashes. No flesh shall be spared!"

I slowly let go of the magics and the extreme sense of grandeur that came with the performance. The pressure vanished and my eyes and shadow returned to their normal state. I grinned cheekily at Erza's wide eyes.

"So it went something like that, yeah." I concluded.

"Hellspawn!" cried one of the villagers, pointing an accusatory finger at me.

"Demon!"

"Unholy creature!"

"Drive it off! Drive it off!"

/

Panting heavily, I begged Erza to stop in between gasps of breath. We'd had to flee quickly to evade the angry village mob. Had my performance really been so convincing? Surely they knew that I was just acting! Well, I had threatened them with the apocalypse...

"I... need... to catch my breath...!" I spoke between pants.

"Hmm, I suppose a short rest would do us some good." said Erza.

"...So, where exactly are we heading?" I asked, after recovering for a minute. "You mentioned a Magnolia Town...?"

"Yes, that's where my guild is." she said. "The mage's guild, Fairy Tail." She lifted up her left arm, displaying a blue insignia below the shoulder. A familiar insignia.

Mage's guild.

S-class mage.

Erza Scarlet.

"Oh," I said.

Fairy... Tail...

I couldn't quite bring myself to say anything else.