Doriarte, one of Succubus Eye's strongest mages, opened his enormous jaws in front of Natsu and Gray as his entire body began to swell.
Within seconds, the already towering man expanded into a hulking mass of muscle.
His clothes burst apart, exposing dark, hardened skin as a sinister aura poured from his body.
Demonization.
Doriarte had originally been human, despite belonging to Succubus Eye, one of Tartaros's subordinate guilds.
After Tartaros noticed his potential, however, he was taken beyond its gates and subjected to demonic modification.
The experiment ultimately ended in failure, and he was cast back into Succubus Eye.
Having witnessed the world beyond Tartaros's gates with his own eyes, Doriarte had become completely enthralled by the demons' overwhelming power.
He took immense pride in his half-demon body and looked down on the weakness of ordinary humans.
"RAAAAGH!"
Now transformed into a hideous monster, Doriarte glared murderously at the child-sized Natsu and Gray.
Natsu hurriedly gathered his flames, attempting to overpower the Curse with raw Magic Power.
But Curses were fundamentally different from magic.
With his strength regressed along with his body, Natsu had no way to break free of its effects.
As Doriarte charged toward them with his jaws wide open, Gray's expression suddenly darkened.
He placed one hand against the frozen ground beneath him.
If his opponent was a demon, then he would answer with magic made to slay demons.
"Get back, Natsu!"
Natsu rushed forward, intending to block Doriarte's charge with his tiny body, but Gray drove an elbow into him and knocked him aside.
Remaining in a crouch, Gray pressed one hand against the ice while releasing a completely different kind of purple Magic Power from the other.
Black markings quietly spread across his arm.
Doriarte, who had been relying on brute force to crush him, suddenly felt as though he had slammed into a massive wall.
"GAAAH!"
He screamed as countless spikes erupted from the ice barrier Gray had created, puncturing Doriarte's thick hide and leaving bloody holes across his body.
An attack like that normally would have barely registered through his hardened skin.
But the special anti-demon properties of Devil Slayer Magic sent such unbearable pain through him that he nearly lost consciousness.
At the same time, Gray drew upon the Devil Slayer ice covering Sun Village, allowing its Magic Power to flow through his body.
With that support, he finally managed to use the immature magic he had only just begun learning.
Perhaps because Devil Slayer Magic had circulated through his entire body, Gray also began growing.
Within moments, he had returned to his usual tall, sharp-featured appearance.
"I'm back."
Gray's head rose above the lower layer of freezing air, and a faint smile appeared on his face.
"Now it's humanity's turn to teach a demon a lesson."
He had only just taken his first steps into Ice Devil Slayer Magic, but with demonic ice surrounding him in every direction, Gray was confident he could defeat this dim-witted half-demon.
Doriarte clutched his bleeding mouth, then thrust out one hand with a vicious glare, attempting to turn Gray into a child again.
Gray steadily resisted the Curse by continuously drawing Magic Power from the ice beneath him. His body did not change in the slightest.
"Ice Devil's Rage!"
Gray's bare feet remained in contact with the ground as the demonic ice fed him Magic Power.
Neat black markings spread across his right arm, while bitterly cold energy gathered inside his mouth.
Then he unleashed it directly at Doriarte.
A violent torrent of frost erupted forward, causing the already frigid temperature to plunge even further.
A stream of purple magical light instantly swallowed Doriarte's entire body.
His agonized screams echoed through the village as frost spread across him.
Countless bloody cracks split open through his once-impenetrable skin, leaving his monstrous body drenched in blood.
When Doriarte felt the frost invading him from within, his mind finally cleared beneath the numbing pain.
All his earlier arrogance vanished.
Without hesitation, he turned and threw himself over the cliff—the very same cliff he had intended to force Natsu and Gray from.
Gray let the last of the Magic Power fade, his chest rising and falling slightly.
He had borrowed the power from the surrounding ice rather than generating it himself, and even then, unleashing such a powerful Devil Slayer spell had taken a lot out of him.
However…
Gray looked across the mountains of purple ice, his eyes gleaming.
Then he opened his mouth and took a bite.
The ice offered no resistance at all.
Rather than hurting his teeth, it melted across his tongue like silky frozen chocolate before turning into Magic Power and sliding into his stomach.
His stamina and magic began recovering at an astonishing rate.
Gray clenched his fists, a deeply satisfied smile spreading across his face.
'So this is what Natsu feels like whenever he fights…'
It was completely different from his old technical style of combat with Ice-Make Magic, or showing off his skill with ice blades at close range.
This was simple, overwhelming destructive power.
And it felt incredible.
Eager to adapt to his new magic as quickly as possible, Gray immediately started chasing after Doriarte.
Before he could get far, however, the still child-sized Natsu grabbed his trouser leg and shouted furiously.
"Hey! Figure out how to turn me back first!"
"You're a little kid now. Worry about not wetting the bed whenever you play with fire."
Out of heartfelt concern for the young, Gray picked Natsu up, took careful aim at his backside, and delivered a full-powered kick.
The kind of brutal foul that would have made even the most corrupt referee reach for a red card launched Natsu through the air and dropped him perfectly into a bush a hundred meters away.
As Gray ran off after Doriarte, Natsu clutched his aching rear and screamed insults after him.
He had barely gotten started when he heard something behind him swallowing hungrily.
Natsu's neck stiffened.
He slowly turned around.
Doriarte's mount—a winged, one-eyed monster that had also been modified into a demon—was staring directly at him with saliva dripping from its jaws.
Tiny Natsu broke into a cold sweat.
After his miniature Fire Dragon's Roar produced nothing more than a weak puff of flame, he had no choice but to pump his short legs as fast as possible and begin yet another endless chase through the wilderness.
...
While Gray enjoyed himself and Natsu suffered, the battle between Lucy, Wendy, Flare, and the three hunters of Sylph Labyrinth had already ended.
People without Magic Power could certainly become strong in this world, but there were limits to how far most of them could go.
In the end, the three women's magic decided the fight.
They tied up the treasure hunters who had come to cause trouble, then followed Flare's directions toward the location of the Eternal Flame.
There, they found Ankh sitting on the ground with a bored expression, watching a child-sized Erza fight Minerva.
Apparently, Doriarte's sudden increase in demonic power had strengthened his Curse enough to affect his own ally as well.
Minerva had been reduced to a little girl who had barely even begun growing up.
At first, she had fallen into complete despair, certain that Ankh would cut her down on the spot.
Erza, however, declared that they were finally on equal footing and demanded another fight so she could defeat Minerva beyond any possible argument.
Naturally, Minerva refused to back down.
And so, using feeble spatial magic, she began an epic kindergarten-level battle against an Erza who could barely lift her sword.
Ankh could only sit there in boredom, watching two naked little girls pull each other's hair and wrestle across the ice.