"Um, Miss… Beautiful lady, if you don't mind us asking... Aren't heaven and hell, you know… places only the dead can go to?"
One of the mages tied up on the floor, drenched in sweat, nervously addressed the stunning woman before him. She was so dazzling, so noble and elegant, like a blooming rose adorned with thorns, breathtaking but dangerous.
At this moment, none of them had the mental capacity to appreciate beauty. All that occupied their minds was one thing, how to survive this woman.
"Congratulations, you're absolutely right. Now, pick your method of death~"
Irene blinked, momentarily caught off guard. To be honest, the words "beautiful lady" had just barely saved their lives, but a pardon from death didn't mean a pardon from pain.
With a smile on her flawless face, she pulled out a long, black, barbed whip, crafted from the dragonhide of Kurnuki, a dragon she had once forced to shed its scales. The whip was enchanted to deal extra damage to living beings.
Simply put, it hurt like hell.
"Gulp..."
The Phantom Lord mages stared at Irene in sheer dread. All their earlier pride and bravado from entering Magnolia had completely evaporated. At this point, surviving was more important than revitalizing their guild.
Guilds could be rebuilt, sure. But lives? They only had one.
"We're sorry, beautiful lady! We must've come to the wrong place. We were looking for Evan's mother, not you!"
One of the mages hastily tried to explain, hoping this was all a big misunderstanding.
"Oh~?"
"Well, I just happen to be Evan Belserion's mother~"
"My name is Irene. Irene Belserion. If you're looking for Evan's mother, then congratulations, you've found her."
Irene smiled sweetly as she dropped the bombshell.
"What?! You're Evan's mother?!"
"No way! That's impossible!"
The Phantom Lord mages were visibly shaken. Irene looked far too young and beautiful to be Evan's mother, she looked more like his older sister!
"We… we heard Evan's mother was already 80 years old…"
Another mage blurted out the rumor they'd heard. But before he could finish, he felt a cold chill run down his spine, a piercing, icy gaze had landed squarely on him.
"Ugh…"
Realizing his mistake, the mage immediately shut his mouth and dared not speak again.
"Hehe~"
Irene chuckled softly. She didn't say much, but her eyes clearly told that mage, you're already dead.
"Um, Lady Irene! Esteemed Lady Irene! Please, might we ask for just one more chance at life?!"
Shaking with fear, the Phantom Lord mages begged for mercy.
They knew that thanks to that one idiot's slip-up, they had offended her, again.
"Snap!"
Irene cracked her whip against the ground, sending sparks flying. Her sharp eyes narrowed as she looked over the crowd.
"Hiss…"
Seeing the fire dance from the lash's impact, the mages all flinched. If a single lash could light up the floor like that, what would it do to human skin?
"W-What are you saying? I couldn't quite hear you~"
Irene's voice was light and sweet, but that only made her more terrifying.
"We were wrong! Please spare us!"
One after another, the Phantom Lord mages collapsed to their knees, begging desperately.
"Oh, so you want me to spare you~?"
"That depends on how well you perform…"
Whip in hand, Irene gracefully settled into the throne prepared for her by her three maids, looking down like a cruel queen at her groveling subjects, her eyes glinting with mockery.
"What terrifying bloodlust… Is this really Evan's family?! What were we even thinking, targeting someone from the Ten Wizard Saints?!"
The mages trembled beneath Irene's pressure. None dared lift their heads, for fear of being instantly sentenced to death with just a look.
"How amusing~"
But only Eden, Ian, and Ilia understood. Their great mistress Irene Belserion wasn't angry. Her amethyst eyes glittered with playful malice.
To Irene, these mages weren't enemies, they were toys. She was just passing the time.
"Hmm… Who should I start playing with first?"
She scanned the room of trembling mages, her lips curling in amusement.
"Eden~"
She called softly, turning to one of the maids beside her.
"Understood."
Dressed in a sleek black bodysuit like a deadly assassin, Eden bowed respectfully. As one of Irene's split personalities, Eden understood her mistress instinctively. Without further instruction, she vanished into the shadows.
Outside The Crimson Lady magic shop, the only one in Magnolia, Eden appeared from the darkness, calmly removed the "Open" sign from the door and replaced it with a new one,
"Training Dogs, Closed for Business!"
Satisfied, she nodded and slipped back into the shadows.
"We have plenty of time. I'll play with you little pups... slowly~"
Irene's smile widened. Now she was contemplating which planet to send these mages to for punishment.
"Now that I think about it… There's that world nearby, full of monsters and magical beasts. Should I toss them there and see how many survive?"
"Oh, and didn't that b*tch Selene have a bunch of flirty little minions who love draining the magic and souls out of men? Maybe I should send these mages to her?"
"Nah… they're too ugly. And their magic reserves are pitiful. Not Selene's type."
"Alright, monster world it is~"
Her pale, delicate fingers gently touched her red lips as she mused.
Honestly, Irene was suffering from a bit of decision fatigue. It wasn't every day someone stupid enough came to provoke her, so she wanted to find the perfectly twisted game to punish them with.
After thinking for a while, Irene made her decision, she'd drop them into a monster-infested world and enjoy watching a little survival horror show.
"Ara~"
"To be honest, after that scumbag Gildarts left Magnolia, I wasn't sure how to pass the time."
"Who would've thought such perfect toys would deliver themselves to my doorstep~? So, do your best to entertain me."
Wearing a dazzling smile, Irene looked over the trembling mages.
As a mage of Fairy Tail, Irene rarely left Magnolia. That meant opportunities to punish arrogant fools were rare. She usually just passed the time chatting with Evan or Erza…
…Or perhaps, to ease her boredom, she'd usually pass the time by beating up that scumbag Gildarts.
But now that Gildarts had left Magnolia to take on a mission in another town, Irene no longer had her daily punching bag. She had just been wondering where to find a new source of entertainment, then these fools delivered themselves right to her door.
So Irene didn't even hesitate, she accepted the gift.
"Ugh…"
The Phantom Lord mages had no idea just how terrifying a fate awaited them. They stared dumbfounded at Irene, unable to predict what she was about to do.
"Off you go now~ Have fun!"
With a pleasant smile on her lips, Irene gave a light wave.
In the next instant, their bodies began to glow.
A second later, every last mage in the shop vanished from the Crimson Lady Magic Tool Store.
In a monster-infested world, not far from Earth Land, Elentear, or Edolas…
Deep within an endless forest, the Phantom Lord mages plummeted from the sky and crashed into the underbrush.
"What happened?!"
"Did we escape that woman?!"
"Who used spatial magic? Did one of our seniors rescue us?"
"No… no, something's wrong. This place isn't right…"
They looked around warily. Something about this forest felt… off.
"Wait, why is there a number floating above your heads?"
One of them suddenly pointed out that everyone now had a glowing number zero floating above their heads.
"Whoa, you're right! We all have zeros above us…"
Confused, the mages stared at each other's foreheads.
And sure enough, every single one of them had a floating number, 0.
"ROAR!"
Before they could even make sense of it, a giant white tiger, five meters long, burst from the trees. In a flash, before anyone could react, it pounced and swallowed one of the dazed mages whole, then darted back into the forest.
"What?!"
They all gasped in horror, but then, to their shock, the mage who'd just been devoured began glowing, and reappeared, alive and unharmed.
"It hurts, it hurts so bad… Wait, am I in hell?"
"You're all here? So… you all died too?"
"Wait, no, I didn't die? Or… did I? Did I just revive?!"
The mage looked down at his body in bewilderment. The excruciating pain from being mauled vanished without a trace. When he looked around, the other mages were just as stunned.
Above his head, his number had changed, from 0 to 1.
"No way… That number… Could it be our death count?"
One of the smarter mages stared in disbelief. As he pieced things together, a voice echoed from the heavens,
"So you figured it out?"
"Yes. The number above your head represents how many times you've died."
"You're no longer in Earth Land. This is a different world, one crawling with beasts and monsters that will kill you at every turn."
"Every time you die, that number will go up."
"Your goal? Stay alive as long as possible. Because once I get bored… anyone who's died 100 times will remain in this world forever."
"So, have fun~"
Irene's voice drifted down from above, sending a chill through every mage's spine.
"Wait… We're not in Earth Land anymore? We're in another world, a so-called parallel dimension?!"
"This has to be a joke… What kind of magic could actually teleport someone to another world?!"
"This is fairy-tale nonsense! That kind of power belongs to divine spirits or fairies in legends, not real mages!"
Some stared around, overwhelmed by disbelief. To travel between worlds, wasn't that the domain of gods?
"Seriously, are there really mages this powerful in the world?"
"If we'd known Evan's mother was this terrifying, we'd never have picked a fight with her…"
Regret burned in their eyes.
"But that's not even the scariest part!"
"Didn't you notice? When we died, it was like time rewound itself. We revived instantly!"
"That's not just healing, that's resurrection!"
"Only gods are said to possess resurrection magic! We're talking about a divine-level ability here!"
One mage, more knowledgeable than the rest, trembled. Even in a world full of magic, true resurrection was thought to be beyond human reach, a realm reserved for deities.
"We should have realized… The only explanation for Evan Belserion becoming one of the Ten Wizard Saints at such a young age is…"
"He's not human. He's the son of a goddess. Irene Belserion isn't human, she's a god!"
"That means we've offended a divine being!"
Horror dawned on every face. They had stumbled upon a truth too terrifying to comprehend, Irene wasn't human. She was a goddess.
Had they not been trapped in another world, these mages probably would've started worshipping her on the spot, founding a new religion in her name. After all, her magic was beyond comprehension, miraculous, even in a magical world.
But in truth, Irene hadn't actually resurrected anyone.
She had merely used her Limitless Enchantment Magic to extract their souls and personalities, then bind them to dolls.
When a doll was destroyed, she simply transferred the soul to a new one.
Because her magic was so advanced, the mages hadn't even realized they were no longer in their real bodies, but just dolls.
The power gap between Irene and the Phantom Lord mages was so vast that they mistook her for a literal goddess.
Irene didn't bother to correct them. In fact, she kind of liked it.
And later, once Irene grew bored and brought them back from that world, they would indeed found a religion in her name, calling themselves the Church of Irene.
But Irene? She didn't care.
To them, she was the omnipotent goddess.
To her, they were nothing more than entertainment.
Meanwhile, outside the Crimson Lady Magic Tool Store…
Evan had returned home after discovering Phantom Lord's objective.
Standing quietly at the door, he looked at the scene unfolding inside, and said nothing.
"Yeah… probably best not to disturb Irene right now."
With that thought, Evan disappeared from the store's front steps.
Elsewhere…
In Phantom Lord's plan, besides the squad targeting Irene, another team had been tasked with capturing Evan's younger sister, Erza.
However, this group ran into internal conflict.
A black-haired youth decided he didn't need help.
Convinced he could take Erza down alone, he acted without backup.
And so, as Erza returned from a mission, she found her path blocked… by a lone enemy mage.