Chapter 21: Serious punch

(Tower of Heaven Island)

After the Tower of Heaven crumbled, a nagging feeling wouldn't leave Leo alone. He felt someone watching him. Grabbing his binoculars, he spotted a small figure hiding in the distance. Exiting silently, Leo vanished from the spy's sight.

"Where'd he go?" An eleven-year-old girl scanned the area where she'd been observing a blonde man in a three-piece suit. Now, he'd disappeared. After all, he was the one who brought down the Lord of Dark Mages, something even she couldn't manage.

She started casting a clairvoyance spell to find the blonde when a cold blade pressed against her neck. A shiver ran down her spine. The man's presence behind her and the sheer murderous aura radiating from him paralyzed her. She couldn't even hold back tears.

"Answer my questions. And if I see you trying to cast a spell, well, you'll be the first eleven-year-old to lose their head," the man whispered, his voice chilling.

With death so near, tears streamed down the girl's face as she trembled and nodded.

"Good," he replied, stepping in front of her. "Let's switch places."

After the swap, the girl introduced herself as Ultear Milkovich, an orphan from the Bureau of Magical Development, an organization that claimed to "help" people but was actually a research facility that experimented on them. She was a victim herself. Abandoned by her mother, she'd allowed them to experiment on her before destroying the entire organization.

Luckily, she encountered a group of Dark Mages of Zeref. Following them, she ended up on this island, searching for a weak-minded person – someone her age with strong magic – to manipulate for her cause.

The Lord of Dark Mages, however, proved far more cautious than expected. Ultear almost got caught using her magic to stay hidden.

"And then you destroyed the tower," Ultear finished her explanation. "I-I was just observing you..."

Leo narrowed his eyes. "But you tried to manipulate Jellal, didn't you? Even though I have a soft spot for kids, I can't ignore something like that."

The truth was, Leo didn't truly care about Jellal or Ultear. They were destined to become antagonists, mere stepping stones for the heroes' growth. However, altering the story now might cause a butterfly effect, potentially derailing the entire plot.

Ultear, with her potential, emerged as the perfect solution. Not only could she maintain the narrative flow, but she might also prove valuable to him later.

"B-but what about when I was abandoned?" Ultear stammered.

"You weren't abandoned," Leo revealed. "Your mother's name is Ur, correct? You possessed immense magical power at birth, a power requiring a cure. To save you, your mother entrusted you to the Bureau of Magical Development. They saw you not just as a patient, but as a valuable test subject. When your mother returned for you, they lied, claiming you were dead. Grief-stricken, she took in students, but you were never replaced. You likely saw her with them, mistaking it for abandonment. The rest, as they say, is history."

Ultear's face drained of color as her jaw hit the ground. "How... how did you know all this?"

"Let's just say I have my secrets," Leo smirked. "Doubtful? Ask your mother yourself."

"No..." Ultear's gaze fell. "She... she froze herself to protect those boys from Deliora. She couldn't have..."

"There, I can help," Leo interrupted, his smirk widening. "Let's make a deal. Witness my strength, then decide if my words hold any weight."

(Flashback ends.)

Thus, Leo formed an unlikely alliance with Ultear. While he preferred minimal interference with other characters, Ultear's potential was undeniable. Plus, a part of him sympathized with her mistreatment by the original narrative. She was just done dirty by the author for the plot armor.

However, a new challenge arose.

"ACHOOO!" Leo sneezed violently. "If I'd known it was this cold, I'd have packed warm clothes and soup."

They arrived at a remote northern continent, a frigid wasteland far from Fiore's mainland. The biting cold was brutal.

"We're here," Ultear announced, gesturing towards a colossal structure of crystalline ice. Inside, a monstrous humanoid demon, presumably Deliora, loomed ominously.

The question remained: how could Leo defeat Deliora without harming Ur? The plan involved Ultear using telepathic magic, a skill she'd learned but never dared to use, to convince Ur to release the demon from the ice encasement. Then, with a single powerful punch, Leo would vanquish the beast.

With a hesitant nod, Ultear placed her hand on the icy mountain and closed her eyes. Understanding the process would take time, Leo waited patiently. As time stretched on, he noticed tears welling up in young Ultear's eyes.

Finally, she opened her eyes and met Leo's gaze. "You were right," Ultear confirmed, a radiant smile breaking through her tears. "She... she never truly left me."

Leo returned the smile, then cut to the chase. "Let's celebrate later. Right now, focus on convincing your mother to undo the ice magic. It's freezing here."

While Ultear, with her potent magic, remained unaffected by the cold, Leo, a mere human, lacked such resilience. He yearned to escape this frigid purgatory.

Ultear nodded and closed her eyes once more. As the wait dragged on, Leo occupied himself by jotting down further instructions for Ultear. He then cleared a nearby abandoned log, creating a makeshift shelter from the blizzard, and conjured a steaming pot of hot chocolate for them both.

"It's no good," Ultear finally admitted, her voice heavy with despair. "Mom sacrificed her body to become the ice that binds Deliora."

Leo rolled his eyes playfully and handed Ultear a mug of hot chocolate. "Didn't you learn time magic? You could potentially reverse it, or maybe even combine it with your mother's magic to break the spell."

Leo spat some magic bullshit he came up with but it seemed to have worked.

Ultear's eyes gleamed. "That's it! With time magic, I might be able to do it!"

5 days later.

Five grueling days passed as Ultear poured her heart and magic into crafting a new spell to free her mother. While Leo harbored doubts about its success, the alternative – Ur remaining eternally frozen – left them with no choice.

Finally, Ultear began to cast the spell. Intricate magic circles materialized beneath the colossal ice mountain, unleashing a swirling storm. Yet, amidst the chaos, Leo witnessed the ice shifting, reshaping into a human form.

As the spell subsided, a grown woman materialized, unconscious, cradled in Ultear's tearful embrace.

"It'll take some time for her to wake up," Ultear explained, her gaze meeting Leo's. "Your turn."

"Understood," Leo replied with a determined nod. He shed his upper garment, wasting no time. Deliora's awakening was imminent, but Leo wouldn't wait.

A surge of power coursed through him, an ability he'd kept hidden. For five glorious seconds, he became... One Punch Man.

[You have activated the ability: One Punch Man]

[Duration: 5 seconds]

The world held its breath as Leo rocketed towards the colossal Deliora. Time seemed to stretch, then snap, as his fist connected with the demon's chest in a deafening CRACK. A tremor ran through the earth, but Deliora remained unmoving.

That wasn't enough. Leo, channeling his inner Saitama, unleashed a flurry of blows. Not a barrage of ten, but a mind-numbing torrent of punches, each one a piston driving pure, destructive force into the monstrous flesh. The ground beneath them shattered, unable to contain the raw power unleashed.

Fifty punches became a hundred, then a thousand. The air around them crackled with raw energy, reality warping under the sheer speed and force. Small explosions detonated on Deliora's body with each hit, leaving smoldering craters.

But Leo wasn't finished. Adrenaline surged through him, his movements blurring into a maelstrom of fists. In the blink of an eye, a million punches rained down on Deliora. The sky above them rippled, threatening to tear open under the sheer pressure.

With each blow, Leo wasn't just hitting Deliora, he was tearing at the very fabric of reality. The magical world of Fairy Tail, built to withstand fantastical feats, screamed in protest.

Finally, in the last nanosecond of his amplified time, Leo pulled back his fist. Time resumed its normal flow, slow and sluggish compared to the storm he'd just unleashed. A ripple spread across Deliora's body, then another, growing wider with each pulse. Reality itself tore, a gaping maw opening in the sky.

Then came the obliteration.

A blinding flash of white consumed the area. The force of the impact ripped Deliora apart, atom by atom. The shockwave scoured the land clean, carving a V-shaped canyon through the snow clouds, revealing the endless blue sky beyond.

Leo, panting lightly, looked at the devastation he'd wrought.

"Damn," he muttered, the echo of his voice swallowed by the desolate silence. "Maybe I went a little overboard." He hadn't meant to scar this world, but in the heat of the moment, he'd unleashed a power that rivaled a god's wrath.

For the mother and daughter, Ultear and Ur, now conscious, stood frozen, their faces pale with awe. Their jaws hung slack, their minds struggling to grasp the impossible reality before them. This wasn't a dream, it was a nightmare made manifest, a testament to the raw, destructive power of one man. It would be a long time before they could even begin to process what they'd just witnessed.

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I am unsure of Ultear as to how I should insert her in the story but I just wrote the basis just in case. She was one of my favorite though from the series.

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