Chapter 80: Unexplained Absurdity

On the far side of Crocus, Erza and Kagura held the line alone, holding off the massive dragon through sheer grit. Steel clashed against scales, and the cobblestones shattered under torrents of dragon fire.

Just as the beast reared back for another attack, Mirajane touched down beside them, her breath hitching slightly as the dust settled around her feet.

"Sorry I disappeared," Mira said, stepping into a fluid defensive stance. "Sitri must have taken control of my body for something important."

"It’s fine, Mira!" Erza called back, throwing her weight to the side to leap clear of a sudden blast of dragon fire that scorched the street beneath them.

Kagura parried a falling chunk of masonry with her scabbard, her eyes widening in disbelief as she caught Mira’s words. "Wait—you let your Take Over demon take full control?!"

Without waiting for an answer, Kagura lunged forward, channeling her magic into the Blade of Resentment. She delivered a full-force slash against the dragon’s lower wing joint. Sparks erupted, but the blade buckled against the thick scales and recoiled violently, sending a shockwave up her arm.

"Tch! It didn’t even leave a scratch!" Kagura hissed, leaping backward to regain her balance.

Mira raised both hands, her dark magic swirling into dense, crackling spheres that condensed into thin, high-velocity beams. The dark magic streaked through the air, striking the dragon right in the snout to draw its attention away from Kagura.

"Sitri doesn’t act on impulse," Mira added calmly over the roar of the impact. "If she forced the driver’s seat, something major was happening elsewhere."

"We trust your judgment," Erza said, re-equipping into her Flame Empress Armor to absorb the residual heat around them. "But right now, we have a monster to bring down!"

The dragon roared, sweeping its massive tail in a wide arc.

"Duck!" Kagura shouted.

All three dropped low as the tail crushed the stone building behind them. Erza pushed off the ground first, summoned a circle of glowing swords, and launched them directly at the beast’s underbelly. "Kagura, aim for the joints! Mira, keep its head turned!"

"On it!" Mira shot upward, her dark magic flaring to draw the dragon’s gaze, while Kagura darted underneath, searching for a gap.

Mira flew high into the sky, her dark magic erupting in a series of blinding flares that forced the dragon’s snout upward. Below, Kagura moved like a phantom between the beast’s massive legs, striking repeatedly with quick, precise thrusts at the inner joints of its hide. At the same time, Erza closed in from the front, her blades leaving glowing trails of light across its chest.

Yet, despite their relentless assault, every strike echoed with a dull clang. Sparks showered the ruined street, but the beast’s scales remained completely unmarred.

Frustration surged in Mira’s chest as she landed back beside the others, her breath coming in heavy, ragged gasps. "What are we supposed to do? Three S-class mages attacking all at once, and we haven’t even drawn blood!"

Erza tightened her grip on her hilt, her jaw set firmly. "Then it just means we haven’t hit it hard enough."

"Or maybe," Kagura interjected, wincing as she wiped dirt from her forehead, "it’s because none of us use Dragon Slayer magic. Ordinary spells just aren’t cutting through."

"It doesn’t matter," Erza declared, stepping forward as magic power flared wildly around her. "Slayer magic or not, we break through!"

Before Erza could launch her next attack, the multi-story building directly adjacent to the dragon violently burst open.

A shadow tore through the stone walls at blinding speed, slamming directly into the side of the dragon’s neck with horrific force. The massive beast shrieked as the sheer kinetic impact hurled its gigantic body sideways, crashing hard into the cobblestones.

A massive shockwave erupted, sending a blinding wall of dust, debris, and shattered masonry rushing toward the trio.

All three immediately raised their arms to shield their faces from the stinging wind.

"What the hell was that?!" Kagura shouted over the roaring wind, squinting through her arm as she tried to pierce the dense, swirling cloud of smoke.

As the swirling dust settled, a heavy, suffocating silence fell over the street.

The massive dragon—the very beast three S-class mages couldn’t even scratch—lay motionless on the shattered cobblestones, its neck snapped and eyes lifeless.

Erza lowered her arms first, her breath catching in her throat. Kagura and Mira stepped forward, staring in shock at the fallen monster. But before relief could set in, the pale light caught a sight that instantly drained the color from their faces.

Lying slumped atop the dragon’s massive neck was a figure they knew all too well. Crimson blood pooled around his motionless body, flowing from a colossal blade that had driven entirely through his chest, pinning him directly to the beast beneath him.

A wave of icy dread surged through all three of them.

"Rudra!"

The shared cry tore from their throats in a panic. Forgetting the battlefield, forgetting their exhaustion, they sprinted toward the mound of rubble, tears welling in their eyes as terror gripped their hearts.

Erza reached him first, dropping to her knees on the dragon’s scales. Her hands hovered over his blood-stained shoulders, trembling, terrified that touching him might make it worse. "Rudra! Stay with us! Look at me!"

"No... no, no, no," Mira whispered, her voice cracking as she scrambled up beside Erza, her hands instantly glowing with soft green healing magic. She pressed them against the wound, but the blood soaked through her glow almost instantly. "Stay focused, Rudra! Please!"

"Rudra, open your eyes!" Erza pleaded, her voice breaking as tears tracked through the dust on her face. "Don’t you dare close them!"

Kagura knelt at his side, her usual stoic composure entirely shattered. Her hand trembled against his neck as she checked for a pulse. Beneath her fingers, the steady beat grew slower... weaker... until it faded into absolute nothingness.

Tears spilled over her cheeks. Her voice was barely a hollow whisper. "Rudra... he..." She bit her lip, forcing the words out through a sob. "He’s stopped breathing. His pulse is gone."

A suffocating quiet hit the street. Erza’s hands froze over his shoulders. Mira’s healing magic flickered out, leaving her staring blankly at his bloodied chest. For several agonizing seconds, their minds went completely blank. They just stared at his motionless face, paralyzed by the weight of what had just happened, while Kagura wept quietly beside them.

Then, without warning, Rudra gasped.

His upper body jerked upward as a deep, ragged breath lunged into his lungs. He sat straight up on the dragon’s neck—the massive sword still impaled straight through his ribs, sticking out of both sides of his torso.

The three girls froze, their brains completely short-circuiting at the sight.

Rudra blinked slowly, wiping a smear of blood off his cheek, and looked at their tear-streaked faces in utter confusion.

"Why are you guys crying?" he asked, his voice completely casual. "Did something happen?"

None of them moved. None of them spoke. They just stared, wide-eyed and unblinking.

Rudra looked around at the destroyed street, then down at the dead dragon beneath him. "Did... someone die or something?" Seeing no other bodies, he turned back to them, tilting his head. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Rudra!" all three screamed in unison, the silence instantly shattering into sheer chaos.

"How are you talking right now?!" Mira cried, her voice pitching an octave higher as her hands flew to her head. "You don’t have a pulse! You stopped breathing!"

"There is a blade through your heart!" Erza shouted, lunging forward to grip his arms, her eyes darting frantically between his face and the steel protruding from his chest. "Are you alright?! Are you in pain?! How are you even sitting up?!"

"You were dead!" Kagura snapped, wiping her tears in a blur of shock and indignation. "I checked your pulse myself! It completely stopped!"

Rudra tapped the flat of the steel and opened his mouth. "Oh, this? It looks worse than—"

Before he could finish, the sword violently jerked inside his sternum. Rudra winced, gritting his teeth as the massive blade ripped itself free, flying backward through the air with a metallic hiss. The sudden extraction left a terrifying, gaping hole straight through his torso, through which Erza could literally see the ruined building behind him.

Up on the roof above them stood Sparda. He caught the flying sword smoothly, casually resting the Force Edge against his shoulder as he looked down at the carnage.

Rudra whipped his head around, clutching the empty space in his ribs as he glared up at the rooftop. "What the hell, you old geezer?! Are you actively trying to kill me?!"

"Yes, brat," Sparda replied smoothly, his tone entirely unbothered. "That is precisely why I was summoned here in the first place, isn’t it?"

Rudra threw his hands up in absolute outrage. "I mean, fair point, but this is still completely unacceptable! Trying to force me into the donut club?!"

Sparda raised an eyebrow, entirely unfazed. "You survived, didn’t you?"

"That’s not the point! As an elder, you’re supposed to go easy on the younger generation!" Rudra snapped, gesturing wildly at his chest. "There’s a big difference between tough love and turning my sternum into a window frame!"

As he yelled, light flared brightly around his ribs. In a stomach-churning instant, flesh, muscle, and skin knitted back together, sealing the massive hole seamlessly without leaving so much as a scratch.

Beside him, Erza, Mira, and Kagura just stood there, their tear-streaked faces frozen as their brains completely short-circuited at the sheer absurdity of the entire situation.

Noticeable heat returned to Rudra’s skin. He turned toward the three girls, his expression softening as he reached out with his thumb to gently wipe the remaining tears from Erza’s and Kagura’s cheeks.

"I’ll explain everything later, I promise," Rudra said quickly, giving them a reassuring grin.

Before any of them could grab him, he kicked off the dragon’s corpse and launched himself straight toward the rooftop to tackle Sparda.

Knowing full well he wasn’t going to explain a single thing, the three mages shook off the lingering shock, turned on their heels, and headed back into the heart of Crocus to reinforce the others against the remaining dragons.

Meanwhile, high above the shattered streets, steel clashed against steel in a blinding blur of speed.

Sparda brought the Force Edge down in a heavy vertical arc, the weight of the strike cracking the concrete beneath their feet. Rudra caught the blow mid-air, locking his own blade against the Legendary Dark Knight’s sword. Sparks showered between them as their magic collided, creating a pressurized ring of air that blew away the surrounding smoke.

Sparda pushed back, creating just enough distance to hold his guard, but he didn’t immediately follow up with an attack. His golden eyes locked onto Rudra.

"Tell me, young blood," Sparda said, his voice calm despite the violent shockwaves echoing around them. "Why were those three human women crying over a demon?"

Rudra parried a swift follow-up thrust, pivoting smoothly on his heel. "Curious, old man?"

"In my era, humans knew only terror in our presence," Sparda replied, sweeping his blade in a wide horizontal arc that forced Rudra to leap backward onto a crumbling ledge. "They ran, fought, or prayed. They did not weep for a demon’s life."

Rudra landed lightly, resting his weapon against his shoulder with a faint smirk. "I don’t need to answer that. You’ll figure it out on your own soon enough."

Sparda offered no response. Instead, a ghost of a smile flickered across his stern face before he vanished from sight.

A split-second later, the air above Rudra fractured. Sparda descended like a falling star, his blade coated in oppressive, dark magic. Rudra shifted his stance, meeting the attack head-on as the rooftop shattered beneath the sheer force of their clash.