(Fiona's POV)
I stepped onto the frozen ground, and the silence hit like a wall.
No wind. No cries. Not even the sea dared to whisper.
Just... silence.
The air was thick with the sll of blood and burnt steel. Ice creaked beneath my boots, slick and dark with what used to be people. My eyes moved slowly over the scene—bodies frozen in mid-motion, twisted in agony, so barely recognizable. Heads were scattered like discarded helts. Eyes wide. Empty
They weren't just thugs.
They were professionals. Assassins trained in every form of death—people who had potential to kill governnts in the shadows.
Now they were broken statues.
Wreckage.
And in the middle of it all... she stood.
Motionless. Back turned to us. Her blade hung at her side, still glowing faintly, like it had a pulse of its own. Her hair, soaked and matted with blood, fluttered slightly in the cold breeze that dared return.
"We have to stop her before she turns this place into a crater," I said quietly, locking eyes on the figure ahead.
That presence... I recognized it.
And I hated that I did.
Erza.
"Loid," I turned to the man beside , hidden behind a lion mask, "Scan her. I need to know exactly what we're dealing with."
He activated his device. Lights blinked. A low beep echoed. Then silence.
"Town-level threat," he muttered, almost as if he didn't believe it. "We've handled worse... we can win."
But I saw the hesitation in his hands. The way he gripped his blade a little tighter.
She wasn't just dangerous—she was... Threat.
Her presence felt unnatural. Like sothing older than war itself had slipped into a human shell and learned to smile.
"I always knew there was sothing off about you," I whispered. "But a demon? I didn't want to believe it."
I turned slightly. "Jenny," I called out.
She adjusted her eagle mask and gave a nod. "Ready."
"Set up a barrier. Shut down all signals—visual, radio, magic. No one sees what happens here."
She moved fast, casting her net. Energy flickered across the sky like a veil descending.
Then she looked at .
Those Voilet eyes—void of hatred, yet full of silence.
As if the part of her that once felt... was buried under a glacier of violence.
"I didn't expect you here, Fiona," she said softly. Her voice carried a weight. Almost human. Almost... sad.
"Neither did I," I replied, stepping forward, blade raised. "I thought you were a witch. But you're worse. You're a monster hiding behind a pretty face."
She said nothing.
But sothing flickered in her eyes.
Regret?
Recognition?
Or just the last ember of the girl she used to be?
Then—she vanished.
"Where is she?!"
"Captain—above!!" Loid shouted.
I looked up. Too late.
She ca down like lightning.
Her blade roared through the air—our swords t in a shockwave of steel and magic. I gritted my teeth, knees buckling from the force. She was faster than before. Stronger.
Steel crashed against steel. The impact forced to my knees. I barely held the parry. Sparks flew. She was faster than anyone I'd faced. Every swing was precise, deliberate—there was no waste. No emotion.
Jenny joined the fight, casting spells to pin her down. Loid covered the right flank, but it didn't matter.
She was everywhere.
And we were falling apart.
We fought. Harder than we ever had. We used formations, traps, illusions—everything.
Loid joined in. A flurry of strikes, perfectly tid.
She danced between them like it was a child's ga.
"Jenny!" I shouted.
"I'm on it!" she called back, unleashing a web of energy to bind Erza in place.
It didn't work.
One pulse of that cursed aura—and the net shattered like glass. Jenny stumbled, blood at her lips.
"Loid! Formation Sigma!" I barked. Our last coordinated assault.
All three of us moved in sync—blades flashing, spells laced through every strike.
It wasn't enough.
Not even close.
She cut through our rhythm like a storm through reeds. Every swing forced us back. Every parry brought us closer to collapse.
And then—we broke.
All three of us fell to one knee, weapons trembling, lungs screaming for air.
She stood above us.
Calm. Untouched.
Watching.
Not with pride. Not even pity.
Just silence.
She hadn't even gone all out.
And we... we were already broken.
Knees dug into the frostbitten earth, blood soaking into the snow. Breath ca shallow. Ragged. The air stank of tal and ash, thick with the weight of death.
Loid coughed beside . "Captain... she's not even trying."
I didn't answer. I couldn't.
My gaze was locked on her.
She stood in the center of the carnage like a statue—calm, composed, terrifying. The air around her pulsed with killing intent, cold enough to sting my skin. Her blade glead with blood that hadn't yet dried. Bodies lay at her feet, shattered and silent. The ice beneath her boots was dyed crimson.
This wasn't the Erza I once knew.
But I had to try.
I forced myself to my feet, ignoring the fire in my ribs. Raised my voice, loud enough to cut through the silence.
"Erza!"
She turned.
Slowly. Like a queen acknowledging the presence of a gnat.
Her eyes t mine—void of warmth. Detached. Disdainful.
"Why?" I asked, voice tight. "Why are you doing this?"
She didn't blink.
"For Yuuta," she said coldly. "I have to kill them."
There it was.
I took a step forward, heart hamring."For Yuuta?" I repeated, stepping forward. "You really believe this is for him?"
"He's injured because of them," she said. Flat. Cold. "So they all have to die."
"No," I said, shaking my head. "That's not what happened."
She said nothing.
"Then tell ," I pressed. "Where was he when you left him?"
She hesitated.
A pause.
A flicker.
Her mask cracked—just a little.
"Yuuta..." she murmured. Her voice trembled, almost imperceptibly. "He was... on the ground. Bleeding. Barely conscious."
Loid leaned in. "Captain—she's cracking. But—"
"Wait." I raised my hand.
Another step.
Her gaze twitched. Not away—but inward.
"What did he say to you?" I asked. "When you found him?"
She hesitated. Her hands twitched. "He reached out... he said my na. He said, 'Don't leave .'"
I stared at her, letting the silence dig deep.
"And what you did," I said softly. "You left him."
Her breath caught.
"You walked away," I went on.
"You didn't call for help. You didn't carry him to safety. You didn't even stop to check if he was still alive."
"No..." she whispered.
"You abandoned him, Erza. You chose revenge over him. Over the one person who needed you most."
Her sword shook in her hand.
"You could have saved him," I said. "But instead, you turned your back on him. And now you're killing in his na? How dare you."
"Stop," she said, voice cracking.
"He trusted you," I said, stepping closer. "He waited. He reached for you. And you—"
"I said stop!!"
Her voice ripped through the air like thunder. Her blade dropped, landing in the snow with a dull, lifeless clink. Her knees buckled beneath her. Hands clutching her chest like she was trying to hold herself together.
"I didn't an to..." she gasped. "I thought I was doing what was right—I thought—Yuuta—I didn't know..."
Her shoulders shook. Tears stread down her face.
"What have I done...?" she choked. "When did I beco this?"
She wasn't fighting anymore. Just sobbing in the blood-soaked snow—drowning in the weight of everything she'd lost... and everything she'd chosen.
That was it.
I glanced at Loid and Jenny.
Gave the signal.
"It's ti," I said, my voice a whisper now.
"Let's finish her."
I gave the signal.
Loid t my gaze, no words needed. He raised his blade silently, the steel glinting like a final judgnt under the gray sky.
We stepped forward, boots crunching softly against bloodstained ice.
Erza knelt ahead, alone in the ruins of her wrath kneeling or say unable to stand. Her hair hung in clumps across her face, soaked in sweat and blood. Shoulders shaking—not from rage, but from sothing more fragile. Sothing dangerously human.
She was quiet.
So quiet, the silence scread.
This was our chance.
If we struck now—swift and without hesitation—it would be over. She wouldn't rise again. No more blood. No more innocents lost to her madness. Yuuta would be free.
Maybe I could finally breathe again.
Loid raised his sword over her, the edge aid clean and cold to her expose neck.
And then—
Crack.
The ground beneath us groaned. Ice spread from where she knelt, spiraling out like veins of death. The air thinned. My skin burned with cold.
Loid's sword wavered. "The hell—"
Erza's sobs stopped.
She didn't lift her head. She didn't stand.
But the pressure changed. The world felt wrong—like sothing ancient had just woken up under our feet.
Her aura didn't rage... it whispered.
And that was sohow worse.
Loid's scanner beeped. Once. Twice. Then it scread.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
"Her threat level just spiked—she's past town-class. Captain..." He looked at . "She's a humanity-level threat."
My hands trembled.
And still—Erza knelt.
Then, softly, like she was asking the sky a question only she could understand, she whispered:
"If Yuuta's really dead... then what do I have left?"
I froze.
She rose slowly. No theatrics. No flas. Just... silence.
And grief.
A grief so deep, so absolute, it hollowed the air around us.
Her sword didn't move with her hand. It floated, drifting into her grip like it belonged there. Like it had always been waiting.
I found my voice, just barely. "Erza, stop. Please. You don't have to—"
She looked at .
Those eyes... weren't angry. They were empty.
The kind of empty you don't co back from.
She whispered, "Yuuta needed ... and I left him. I thought revenge would fix it. But now..."
She clutched her chest like she was holding his heartbeat inside her.
"I was too late."
Loid staggered back, blade dropping an inch. Jenny didn't even move.
We weren't in control anymore.
She was.
She glanced at the sky, as if Yuuta was sowhere beyond the clouds.
"Forgive Yuuta."
And then—
She unleashed all her aura.
The air turned razor-thin—hard to breathe, hard to think. Her presence stretched high into the sky like a tornado made of pure wrath. We were thrown back several feet, crashing onto the icy ground.
The entire port trembled, steel cranes groaning, the ground cracking—it felt less like an attack and more like the grief of a mother who'd just lost her child.
She wasn't just angry.
She was breaking.
I gasped, eyes wide. "I thought... I thought she was a Greater Demon..."
"No," I whispered, almost to myself. "No—it can't be."
Loid's voice trembled through the chaos. "Captain—we need to inform the higher-ups. This threat... it's beyond us!"
"I know!" I snapped, heart pounding. "But we can't! We used the isolation devices—we've cut off all signals. No one's coming."
And in that mont, every legend we ever laughed at, every myth we thought was a fairytale... beca terrifying reality.
"Only one being in existence is capable of emitting this presence."
In that one mont, every legend, every rumor, every warning—they beca truth.
She was never a demon in first place.
She was a mythical Being.
The living legend.
The Dragon.
And she was done holding back.
What have I done.!
To be continued...
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