User blog comment:EvanDude345rv5/Fairy Tail 344: Erza is a child again, WTF ?/@comment-7418318-20130719193322/@comment-5580383-20130722061438

That can also  be a possibility  but if that's the case, wouldn't  everyone in the village also be  children to that degree  given they appear to come close to the flames at one  point ?

Well given we have a world of  flying blue cats, super powered lolis and treemen, i think the flame being sentient flame might be possible.

I'm guessing the mental/telepathy power seems to be the most plausible option here given i don't recall flames being able to  turn people back to kids and it might be too farfetched for my previous theory about the big bad of this arc having similar powers to  Time Arc. It could be a  illusion or hauiclationsimalir to that of  Scarecrow's  illusions or something more powerful than that.