Chapter 665 - 665: A Longing for Peace

Enny could no longer stop her younger sister. Kagura was keeping her occupied, and Luso herself had already lost all composure.

One grotesque giant doll after another appeared behind Luso and charged toward Erza, but Erza showed no fear whatsoever.

Magical swords materialized around her in rapid succession as she raced through the swarm alongside them, cutting apart every twisted construct that tried to block her path.

In the blink of an eye, Erza, still clad in the Heaven's Wheel Armor, reached Luso.

With a Heaven's Wheel sword in each hand, she crossed both blades through Luso's defenses.

A brilliant cross-shaped slash flashed across Luso's body.

By the time the light faded, Erza had already appeared behind her.

The countless magical swords following in her wake struck Luso one after another before sweeping back to gather behind Erza once more.

"LUSO!!!"

Enny immediately tried to rush toward her unconscious sister, but Kagura stepped into her path and blocked her with Archenemy.

Enny's expression turned vicious.

"Enough with the tricks. I'm finishing this now!"

She accelerated toward Kagura and opened with a feint that flowed into a slash, followed immediately by a high thrust.

Kagura parried both, and Enny continued without hesitation, chaining two more cuts together.

"Blocked again..."

By now, Enny no longer dared underestimate Kagura.

When her first sequence failed, she lunged forward again and swept her blade diagonally toward Kagura.

Kagura met the strike head-on, then turned the defense into an upward diagonal counter.

Enny pulled back just in time.

Kagura immediately followed with a left-handed downward cut, and when Enny evaded that, a horizontal slash came right behind it.

Enny twisted sharply at the waist and barely managed to avoid the blade.

The exchange only grew faster from there.

Enny attacked with an upward diagonal cut, a frontal slash, and then a spinning horizontal strike.

Kagura ducked to the right, bracing one hand against the ground as the blade passed overhead, then used the motion to launch an upward slash of her own.

Enny stepped forward to avoid it, planted one foot against a nearby rock, and used the leverage to twist into a flying horizontal cut.

Kagura leaned back just enough for the blade to pass in front of her.

Erza made no attempt to interfere with the sword duel.

She simply watched from the side, occasionally nodding in appreciation.

"Too bad I forgot to bring popcorn. This is actually pretty good!"

Enny's assault continued relentlessly.

A diagonal cut from the left, another from the right, then a feint that let her close the distance.

She tried to circle behind Kagura before Kagura could react, kicked off another rock, and launched herself into a descending slash from above.

Kagura spun around immediately and raised Archenemy in time to block.

"Your swordsmanship is impressive. You don't fight like an alchemist."

The way Kagura looked at Enny had changed.

As far as she was concerned, Enny resembled a trained swordswoman far more than an alchemist.

Her footwork was agile, her attacks were fierce, and every movement flowed naturally into the next.

"I'm equally surprised that someone devoted to Magic knows how to wield a sword so well," Enny replied casually.

Her attacks never slowed.

Thrust, diagonal slash, spinning horizontal cut, overhead strike—Kagura parried every one.

Then Kagura stopped merely defending.

She answered with an overhead cut that flowed immediately into a horizontal slash.

After slipping past Enny's thrust, she chopped downward against the serpentine blade, then followed with three rapid left-handed strikes.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Each slash hammered against Enny's weapon.

Kagura caught the serpentine sword against Archenemy and reached out with her right hand to seize it, forcing Enny to jerk her arm upward to keep hold of the weapon.

Kagura used the movement to spin, switched the sword into her right hand, twisted at the waist, and swept low toward Enny's legs.

Enny jumped over the strike and countered with a horizontal slash of her own while still in the air.

Kagura immediately raised her blade vertically to block, then surged forward close to the ground and attacked Enny's legs.

The instant Enny lifted one leg to evade the slash, Kagura seized the opening and swept her supporting leg out from under her.

Enny hit the ground hard.

Even then, she refused to surrender.

Dropping to one knee, she gripped her sword in both hands and tried to continue fighting, but Kagura wound Archenemy around Enny's blade, trapped her right arm, and pressed down on the serpentine sword before Enny could raise it again.

Kagura maintained relentless pressure, denying Enny any chance to properly stand.

When Enny finally staggered upright, Kagura struck her leg with the back of Archenemy.

Enny recoiled in pain as the alchemical armor protecting her leg shattered apart.

She clenched her teeth.

'Damn it... My right leg has completely lost its strength! How did this woman even train herself to fight like this?!'

Still, Enny refused to give up. She pushed off with her left leg alone and attacked again, though her speed had noticeably dropped.

"You've got impressive determination," Kagura admitted.

Her opinion of Enny rose slightly. At the very least, the elder sister's composure and resilience were far better than Luso's.

Kagura slipped sideways, drove a kick into Enny's thigh, and followed by repeatedly targeting the already injured leg.

Eventually, Enny collapsed to the ground and could no longer stand.

She stared ahead in disbelief.

She had lost.

"What exactly are you trying to accomplish?"

Kagura raised Archenemy and pointed the tip directly at Enny.

In her current condition, killing Enny would have been effortless.

"..."

Enny clenched her teeth and remained silent for a long time.

Erza, who had been watching from the side, finally asked, "Gold Owl is being controlled by Viernes, the Gold Dragon God. So what is your actual goal?"

Only then did Enny finally lower her proud head.

"To transmute history."

"History?"

Erza and Kagura exchanged confused looks.

History was something that had already happened. How could anyone possibly transmute it?

"To kill every dragon and create a peaceful world unlike anything that has ever existed—a world where humanity never needs to fear dragons again. To accomplish that, Athena must be completed. Dragon Slayer power must be combined with her, and then she will eliminate every dragon in the world."

Erza frowned.

"But you're working with Viernes. Even if you somehow killed every other dragon, wouldn't the Gold Dragon God still remain?"

Enny lowered her gaze toward the serpentine sword in her hand.

"The Gold Dragon God no longer possesses a physical body. He exists only as a concept. We learned what happened in Ishgar. We know about the age when people lived beneath the terror of Acnologia."

Neither Erza nor Kagura denied that.

Four hundred years ago, Ishgar truly had been a nightmare for many of its inhabitants, although neither of them had personally experienced that era.

They only knew fragments of it through Irene, Selene, and Anna.

But every one of those people had described it as a tragic age and had told them to cherish the peaceful lives they possessed now.

"Even so, we won," Erza said firmly.

Enny slowly shook her head.

"It has nothing to do with victory or defeat. The era itself was wrong. As long as dragons existed, tragedy followed."

"No."

Erza rejected that immediately.

"You're wrong. Blaming everything on dragons is just as mistaken. There were dragons who chose humanity's side."

She looked directly at Enny.

"Was it the dragons' fault? Humanity's fault? Or the world's fault?"

"There isn't one simple answer. You can't reduce something like that to a single cause when there are so many better ways forward."

Kagura met Enny's gaze as well.

"History has already happened. Obsessing over changing the past accomplishes nothing. What matters is remembering it, learning from it, and allowing that memory to become the reason you move toward something better."

The final defenses around Enny's convictions began to crumble.

Losing to Kagura was one thing.

Having the ideals she had believed in so completely challenged by both Erza and Kagura struck far deeper.

And somewhere inside, Enny knew they were right.

Yet there was still something strange in the back of her mind—an intrusive thought that continued interfering with her judgment.

"Enny-nee... our World Transmutation is coming undone..."

Luso lay on the ground, barely conscious, staring toward her fallen sister.

Just as she said, the entire Purgatory world began to collapse.

Cracks spread across the sky and earth like fractures running through a massive mirror.

Then the world shattered.

Piece by piece, the broken fragments fell away.