"Ugh."
Pain mixed with fear spread deep within Deliora's heart. Although he was known as the Immortal Demon—
In reality, he was merely relying on his powerful regeneration ability and the Curse Power stored up over many years to constantly regenerate.
If he continued to be pummeled by this human in front of him, sooner or later, he would die here completely.
"Human, let's talk."
In despair, Deliora tried to have a proper conversation with this young man who seemed less than human.
"You can still talk?!"
Ide, who was bombarding Deliora with an endless rain of fists, looked shocked upon discovering that Deliora could still speak. He immediately increased the speed and power of his punches.
Indeed, letting Deliora still be able to speak normally was his mistake.
"Pfft."
This time, under Ide's increasingly rapid punches, the invincible Deliora was rendered completely speechless.
Several hours later.
When the rising sun illuminated the valley.
The "earthquake" that had lasted all night finally stopped completely.
Under Ide's flesh-pounding bombardment, Deliora was no longer able to regenerate his body. The Curse Power he had accumulated over hundreds of years had been completely exhausted in this single night.
"Ice Dragon's Roar!"
After confirming that Deliora was thoroughly dead, Ide released a roar to completely destroy the few remaining scraps of Deliora's wreckage.
Ide's rich combat experience told him that with this demon's regenerative power, even leaving a tiny piece of wreckage behind could lead to resurrection. It was safer to destroy it completely without leaving a trace.
After doing all this, Ide turned around and walked back to the town without even glancing at the valley he had destroyed.
At the same time Deliora died.
In a dark forest.
Inside the headquarters of Tartaros, the most mysterious dark wizard guild on the continent of Ishgar, which housed the Books of Zeref.
"Hm?!"
In the deepest part of Tartaros, a young man sitting on a majestic throne, carefully cradling a magic book with "END" printed on the cover, suddenly woke from his nap as if sensing something.
This young man was the Underworld King, Mard Geer Tartaros, the acting guild master of Tartaros. He glanced at a bookshelf filled with magic books in the study, watching one particular book slowly spontaneously combust. He shook his head and said, "Kyoka, tell the subordinates not to bother looking for Deliora anymore. That guy is already dead."
"What?"
"Deliora was actually killed by someone?"
"Lord Mard Geer, do you need me to investigate and avenge Deliora?"
The woman named Kyoka's expression changed drastically upon hearing this. She knelt on one knee before Mard Geer and asked.
"Unnecessary."
"We still need to keep a low profile."
"Everything is for the resurrection of Lord END."
Mard Geer raised his hand and waved it gently at Kyoka, then closed his eyes to resume his nap.
It seemed the death of a Great Demon couldn't cause even a ripple in his heart.
In the town.
Ide returned immediately after dealing with Deliora.
At this time, the townsfolk who had been hiding in the back mountain, noticing that the firelight, vibrations, and demon roars in the town had all disappeared, some emboldened individuals began to return one after another.
"The demon is gone."
Discovering that Deliora was nowhere to be found in the entire town, they all breathed a sigh of relief.
"Where is that Lord Wizard?!"
"Let's look for him together."
Of course, there were also people looking for traces of Ide. In the eyes of these townsfolk, Ide was already a hero.
"Whoosh!"
Just as the townsfolk were clearing the ruins of the town and searching for Ide, accompanied by an ear-piercing sound of breaking wind, Ide, who had vanished without a trace, suddenly appeared in front of them. He looked at these simple townsfolk and said with a smile, "Everyone, Deliora has been eliminated by me."
"Oh!!"
As Ide's voice fell, the entire town erupted in jubilant cheers.
"I am Lahar, Captain of the Custody Enforcement Unit under the Magic Council ERA."
"On behalf of the Kingdom of Isvan and the Magic Council, I pay you the highest tribute."
"Could you please tell me your name so I can report it to the Magic Council?"
At this moment, the Magic Council soldiers saved by Ide also came up to him, asking for his name.
"Me?"
"My name is Ide, a member of the wizard guild Fairy Tail."
Ide stated his name directly.
"Ide?"
Upon hearing Ide's name, the soldier frowned tightly. He seemed to have heard this name somewhere before.
Just as the soldier was pondering where he had heard the name Ide, the young boy Gray, whom Ide had successfully saved, walked up to Ide with his parents' encouragement.
He knelt on both knees and said loudly, "Lord Ide, please accept me as your disciple! Teacher, I want to learn magic!"
"Ah?"
Caught off guard, Ide was startled by the boy's sudden action.
"Anyway, stand up and say whatever you have to say."
Ide first helped the boy up from the ground, then asked, "You're called Gray, right? So can you tell me why you want to learn magic from me?"
"I want to protect my mom and dad. I want to protect the people in the town. I don't want to be protected by my family anymore. I don't want to lose anyone."
Gray clenched his fists tightly. His eyes were red. thinking about how he almost lost his parents last night, his whole body couldn't stop trembling with fear.
"To protect, huh?"
Ide's pupils trembled as he muttered to himself.
If it was for the sake of protection, that certainly fit the style of their Fairy Tail guild~
Anyway, Ide usually had to teach the four little ones—Ultear, Erza, Cana, and Laxus—adding Gray to the mix wouldn't make much difference.
"Ah! I remember now."
"You're the criminal Ide who destroyed several towns in a row, right?"
Just as Ide was about to accept Gray as a disciple, he saw the soldier who had looked at him with reverence just a moment ago seem to finally remember who Ide was!
He called his fellow soldiers, grabbed their weapons, charged at Ide, and surrounded him.
"?"
"What nonsense are you talking about?"
"I didn't destroy several towns in a row."
Hearing this, Ide was completely dumbfounded. He looked at the soldiers surrounding him and retorted.
"There's no mistake."
"Ide of the wizard guild Fairy Tail, always wearing a black trench coat, plus possessing a powerful 'inhuman' magic power, often acts recklessly during work, making a mess of towns."
"He once blasted half a town to smithereens along with a magic beast just to destroy it."
"However, the only difference between you and the rumored Ide is that the Ide we heard of has short orange-red hair, while your hair is black."
"So that's it. You chose to dye your hair to avoid the Magic Council's tracking, didn't you?! No wonder we couldn't find your traces."
The soldiers said.
"Screw your hair dyeing."
"You're the one who dyed your hair."
"Let me say it again, the bastard with short orange-red hair, that's Gildarts, not me."
"You guys got it wrong, you bastards!"
Ide was furious. He finally knew which "old dog" was out there ruining his reputation.
"Cut the crap. Gildarts is from your guild too anyway."
"No time to lose, arrest him quickly!"
"Until their guild master pays the fines, we absolutely cannot let him go."
"Once we let him go, their master won't pay the fines."
The soldiers said one after another.
"Can't be helped."
"Looks like I have to run."
seeing this, Ide cursed Gildarts' ancestors for three generations in his heart. Then he picked up Gray standing beside him, threw him over his shoulder, and ran out of the town like the wind.
"?"
Gray looked at Ide with a surprised face, his expression somewhat bewildered.
"Didn't you want to learn magic? Gray."
"Then come with me, to the wizard guild Fairy Tail."
Ide said.
"Mmh."
Hearing this, Gray's eyes slowly lit up. While nodding vigorously, he waved forcefully at his parents: "Father, Mother, don't miss me! I'm going to learn magic."
"What?"
"Destroying towns is one thing, but you're actually abducting women and children too?"
"This is intolerable."
Originally, these soldiers of the Magic Council ERA, seeing that Ide had saved them, only intended to scare Ide a little and let it go.
After all, this was a task personally arranged by the higher-ups. If they didn't at least put on a show, they wouldn't be able to explain themselves.
But all of this changed after Ide carried Gray and ran away right in front of them.
These righteous soldiers simply couldn't accept the fact that Ide was "abducting children in public."
"Do you people from the Magic Council ERA not understand human language?"
"Didn't you hear just now that the kid asked to be my disciple on his own? Bastards."
Ide complained while running ahead with Gray on his shoulder.
Just like that, this group of Magic Council ERA soldiers chased Ide over ten mountains, even planning to put a warrant out for him. In the end, it was only after Gray's parents took the initiative to explain the situation that they stopped the bounty on Ide.
On the other side.
A certain Gildarts, who wished to remain anonymous, was finally arrested by the troops of the wizard prison BLACK VOX for some special reasons.
"What is your name?"
The troop leader looked at Gildarts and asked.
"I never change my name wherever I go. I am Ide."
Gildarts held his head high and chest out, loudly proclaiming his name.