Luo En shook his head helplessly.
"Hearing the words 'Fire Dragon,' he charged out like a madman, without even verifying the most basic information.
Thinking about it, the real Fire Dragon, Igneel, is so massive that if he appeared in a port city, he would have caused earth-shattering panic and commotion long ago. How could it be so quiet?"
A hint of regret quietly crept into his heart. He actually really wanted to see a live broadcast of this "Fire Dragon" farce, to witness the classic scene of Natsu's first encounter with Lucy.
Unfortunately, with his current "strength"—or rather, the predicament of possessing magic power but being unable to effectively use it—he probably wouldn't even qualify to be a peripheral observer in the upcoming storm-level events that would sweep across the kingdom and shake the continent.
"This is probably... the deepest despair, isn't it?"
A heavy sense of powerlessness gripped him.
"Knowing the future, possessing immense power, yet only being able to watch everything unfold, unable to change a single iota. Transmigrating to this world, no golden finger, no system, and even this magic power feels like a sarcastic joke."
"Perhaps... it would have been better to have no magic power at all from the start, at least then I could have completely given up on these unrealistic aspirations."
A long and heavy sigh involuntarily escaped Luo En's lips:
"Sigh..."
His tone carried a hint of confusion and unwillingness.
"Luo En."
A gentle and pleasant voice sounded beside him, tinged with concern. Mirajane had walked over at some point and gently placed a cup of warm water on the bar in front of him.
She had heard his sigh and thought he was once again frustrated by his elusive magic.
"Go for a walk outside," she said softly.
"It's quiet here for now. A change of scenery, perhaps... you might discover something different."
Luo En paused slightly, pulling himself away from his jumbled thoughts. He looked up into Mirajane's gentle gaze, and after a moment, he reacted, slowly nodding:
"...Alright. Thank you, Mirajane."
With a heavy heart, Luo En rose and left the bustling guild. He wandered aimlessly through the familiar streets—shop windows, the chatter of pedestrians, the scent of flowers on the street corner... Unbeknownst to him, the stone pavement under his feet gradually turned into soft earth, and the city's clamor was slowly replaced by the chirping of birds and the rustling of wind. Luo En stopped, looking up with a hint of bewilderment.
The sight before him made him slightly stunned—he had unknowingly walked out of the city of Magnolia and arrived at an open, rural clearing. Ahead lay a lush forest.
The wind in the forest carried the fresh scent of grass and trees, blowing across Luo En's face, yet it reminded him of the unfamiliarity and coldness of that forest when he first opened his eyes seven years ago.
"Heh..."
A self-deprecating sound, like a sigh, escaped his lips. He suddenly clenched his fists, knuckles white, as if trying to grasp some illusory hope, but ultimately he released them in defeat.
"Seven years..."
He murmured to himself, his voice scattered by the wind.
"What good is it to be unwilling? I've tried my best to study and research, and my magic power has grown, but this damned Dust Magic can't even create a decent ripple..."
Thinking about years of effort and its results, and then experiencing the natural scenery here, a nearly numb sense of exhaustion quietly spread.
"Perhaps... fate is already decided? Just like this, in this world called the Kingdom of Fiore, with the 'Fairy Tail.'"
"Perhaps... living an ordinary life... isn't so bad?"
When this thought emerged, when he first tried to reconcile with his unwillingness, an unprecedented feeling quietly arose.
He slowly closed his eyes, emptying his mind. However, what he waited for was not inner peace, but... gradually, an unprecedented feeling quietly arose, as if he was no longer an individual separate from nature, but had become a part of nature, generating a subtle resonance with nature and the world.
Buzz!!!
A strange power, savage enough to tear the world apart, erupted from the deepest part of his body!
Luo En suddenly opened his eyes, his pupils reflecting distorted space, his face filled only with extreme shock and absurdity:
"No... no way?!"
Centered on him, a completely transparent, distorted force field, about two meters in diameter, suddenly expanded!
The surrounding air was violently stretched and spun, forming a visible, light-devouring miniature vortex! The edges of the vortex were blurry, and inside the vortex was churning, boundless darkness and distorted flowing light.
"This... what is this?!"
Luo En instantly recognized this familiar yet terrifying sensation, but he couldn't stop it, nor could he escape. His body was drawn by a huge suction force towards the depths of the vortex.
"Damn it! No way?!"
Luo En roared in anger amidst the chaotic airflow, his voice distorted and fragmented.
"Again?! Which bastard god doesn't want me to live in peace?!"
His body was uncontrollably dragged, and the cold sensation of tearing space reminded him of his memories from seven years ago.
"Damn it!"
A terrifying thought surfaced in his mind.
"This damn thing... it's not going to take me to some other cursed world to start over, is it?!"
At this moment, in the Fairy Tail Guild, Makarov was holding a wine glass when his hand suddenly trembled, spilling wine everywhere.
He stood up abruptly, his old face filled with solemnity and shock, looking in the direction Luo En had left.
"This spatial tearing fluctuation... there's no mistake! It's exactly the same as the night I found Luo En seven years ago! Did something happen to that child?!"
Meanwhile, at the core of that terrifying vortex, in Luo En's eyes, the leaves, grass clippings, and even light caught in the vortex, their trajectories became extremely slow.
It was as if time was being stretched and frozen by an invisible force, and the scene before his eyes was flashing and switching frame by frame.
In a trance, he seemed to glimpse a strange mountain forest shrouded in night. In that darkness, only a faint light emanated from a mountain shrine in the distance.
However, this time there was no tearing pain, only an indescribable fatigue and coldness that instantly swept through his entire body... His vision blurred, and when light returned to his pupils, a suffocatingly deep night sky replaced Fiore's daylight. Luo En was already in a strange mountain forest.
"Where is this...?"
Luo En fell heavily onto the damp, cold humus soil. He leaned against a rough tree trunk beside him, struggling to stand up, and looked around. In the distance, he could vaguely see a mountain shrine emitting a faint light.
He instinctively tried to use his magic power to sense his surroundings.
His heart suddenly constricted, and his body, which had just recovered from the spatial tear, instantly stiffened.
It was at this moment that he realized with horror—the magic power within him seemed to be bound by invisible shackles, flowing incredibly sluggishly!
"Magic power... suppressed?"
An unknown environment, restricted power... every element exuded a dangerous aura!
But at the same time, he clearly perceived that the magic power itself had not disappeared; it was merely bound by some rule or power of this world... He also had a vague premonition, a faint sensation connecting him to the world he came from. That line hadn't broken, it had just become extremely distant and dim.
"Can I... go back?"
This thought gave him a glimmer of hope, but that was all.
How to go back, when to go back, everything was unknown.