Chapter 284: I’m Waiting for You....Erza..

The roar from the Atlantic had awakened that same fear within the elf.

Yet Erza showed none of it.

Her violet eyes remained fixed upon the open sky as two enormous wings suddenly erupted from her back. Brilliant white dragon-like wings spread outward beneath the moonlight... each one glowing with a pale radiance that made the wings appear almost as though they had been formed from the moon itself.

Sister Mary looked up.

"My Queen?"

Erza bent her knees and launched herself upward.

The force of her departure scattered leaves, dust and broken glass throughout the ruined garden as she shot through the shattered ceiling. Her wings opened fully once she cleared the Agency, carrying her higher until the enormous expanse of Liebus began unfolding beneath her.

Only then did Erza see how far the roar had travelled.

Emergency lights flashed throughout the coastal districts while alarms continued screaming between damaged buildings. Several streets near the ports were covered in shattered glass, sections of the harbor had already flooded, and farther out at sea the surviving patrol vessels were being thrown around by waves that should never have existed on such a clear night.

Yet those ships weren’t what caught Erza’s attention.

Something was behind them.

Far beyond the coastline, where the Atlantic should have disappeared peacefully beneath the darkness, the horizon looked wrong.

At first it resembled an enormous black mass sitting upon the ocean. Erza narrowed her eyes, sharpening her vision until the darkness separating her from the approaching army gradually became meaningless.

Then she saw it clearly.

Leviathan.

Even from this distance, its size was horrifying.

The creature’s enormous dark-blue body stretched across the Atlantic like a piece of the ocean itself had risen and taken form. Armored scales covered a colossal serpentine torso that disappeared beneath the waves, while jagged dorsal spines broke through the water farther and farther behind it until Erza could barely determine where the beast actually ended.

Its enormous crowned head towered above the surrounding army.

Warships that had appeared large from the Liebus coastline looked insignificant beside it. Thousands of demons surrounded Leviathan upon monstrous aquatic creatures, yet instead of making the beast appear smaller, their presence only revealed how absurdly enormous it truly was.

They looked like insects gathering around something ancient.

The ocean itself seemed unable to remain calm around Leviathan. Each movement of its submerged body displaced enormous amounts of water, while waves rolled outward from its chest and shoulders. Its massive claws occasionally became visible beneath the surface before disappearing again, and farther behind it an immense tail disturbed the Atlantic whenever it moved.

Then Erza noticed the water around its jaws.

Its mouth remained stretched open toward Liebus as the final portions of that monstrous sound continued rolling across the country. Waves of pressure distorted the mist around its head, while the demons closest to it remained lowered against their mounts and Leviathan’s scales.

Erza’s expression became more serious.

This wasn’t some oversized monster the demons had dragged across the ocean.

It was a genuine mythical beast.

Then Leviathan’s roar finally weakened.

Its jaws slowly began to close, enormous ivory teeth disappearing behind its lips while the last deep vibrations travelled across the Atlantic. The sudden absence of that overwhelming sound left the distant ocean almost disturbingly quiet.

Leviathan’s head moved.

Slowly.

Its crowned skull turned away from the damaged patrol vessels and began angling toward Liebus.

Erza watched carefully.

The movement continued until Leviathan’s enormous face was directed toward the country, but something about its posture immediately caught her attention. It wasn’t searching the coastline randomly, nor did its gaze move between the cities below her.

Its eyes rose.

Across an enormous distance, two brilliant golden eyes burned through the darkness.

They stopped directly on Erza.

For several seconds, the Queen of Atlantis simply hovered beneath the moonlight while the mythical beast remained within the distant Atlantic. Thousands of demons filled the ocean between them, alarms screamed throughout Liebus beneath her and enormous waves continued battering the damaged coastline.

Neither of them looked anywhere else.

Leviathan had found her.

A creature that should have seen Erza as nothing more than a tiny white figure in the distant night had somehow recognized exactly where she was. Its enormous pupils narrowed as its head rose slightly higher from the ocean, exposing more of the armored neck beneath it.

Something changed throughout the demon army.

Several aquatic mounts became restless again.

The demons didn’t understand why, but Leviathan did.

This was the presence it had sensed earlier.

Erza stared back at it.

Then her lips slowly curved upward.

Her heart began beating harder as excitement spread through her body, sending heat through blood that had been cold only moments earlier. The enormous creature before her had destroyed part of Liebus merely by announcing its arrival, and unlike the countless enemies Erza had encountered before, Leviathan didn’t look as though it would disappear beneath the first swing of her blade.

Perhaps this one could endure it.

Perhaps this one could actually fight her.

Erza’s brilliant white wings spread wider behind her, their moonlit glow cutting through the darkness above the Atlantic, while her violet eyes remained locked with Leviathan’s distant golden gaze. Beneath the mythical beast, thousands upon thousands of crimson eyes filled the ocean, stretching across the horizon as the demonic army completed its approach beneath countless black-and-red banners.

The demons had finally arrived.

For a moment, Erza simply stared.

Then the smile already resting on her lips slowly widened.

She had waited for this. Ever since the first demonic presence appeared near Liebus, ever since they dared approach her territory and threaten the people under her protection, something inside her had been demanding this confrontation. Now, with Leviathan towering above an entire army and the Atlantic itself seemingly swallowed beneath the demons, Erza could no longer contain the excitement surging through her.

"Finally..." she whispered, her violet eyes gleaming with anticipation.

"You’re here."

Her wings suddenly slammed downward.

BOOM!

The air exploded behind her.

Erza vanished from the sky like a streak of white light, launching herself directly toward the Great Leviathan without the slightest hesitation.

The tremendous force of her acceleration ripped apart the clouds around her, leaving a brilliant white trail stretching across the darkened heavens as she charged straight toward the colossal mythical beast.

___________

Location: Yuno City

Place: Yuuta’s Apartment

After dinner, Elena had fallen asleep almost immediately.

She was curled peacefully on the living-room sofa, one small arm wrapped around her stuffed toy while her head rested against the cushion. A blanket Yuuta had carefully placed over her covered most of her tiny body, and every now and then her lips moved as she mumbled happily in her sleep.

"Mama... that’s a good toy..."

Elena hugged the stuffed toy a little tighter.

"Elena likes it..."

A small smile appeared upon her sleeping face as she continued dreaming about whatever wonderful present she believed Erza would bring home. She remained completely unaware that Mama wasn’t secretly searching for a toy, or that Papa had only invented that story because he couldn’t bring himself to tell her why Erza was really gone.

Around her, the apartment had fallen silent.

Several crayons and childish drawings remained scattered across the living-room floor, while faint marks left behind by Erza’s aura during the argument were still visible nearby.

The kitchen was silent as well.

Three plates remained upon the dining table.

Elena’s was empty.

The other two were untouched.

One belonged to Yuuta, while the other had been prepared for Erza out of habit. It was supposed to have been another ordinary family dinner, with Elena talking too much between bites while Yuuta told her to chew properly and Erza sat across from him pretending not to enjoy whatever he had cooked for her.

Instead, both meals had gone cold.

Yuuta wasn’t inside the apartment.

Beyond the closed glass balcony door, he sat alone beneath the night sky.

He had lowered himself onto the edge of the balcony and curled his body inward, his arms resting loosely around his knees. The glass door remained shut behind him, separating the warm apartment from the cold night air surrounding him.

For the entire evening, Yuuta had managed to keep himself together for Elena.

He had smiled when she looked at him, wiped the sauce from her face, listened to her excitedly talk about Mama’s supposed surprise and carried her to bed when she finally became sleepy. Not once had he allowed his daughter to see what was happening beneath that smile.

Now Elena was asleep.

There was nobody left to fool.

Yuuta slowly raised his head toward the moon.

Tears had already gathered beneath his crimson eyes.

For several minutes, he simply stared upward without wiping them away. He didn’t know where Erza was, but looking at the moon made him wonder whether she could see the same thing from wherever she had gone.

Then his memories began returning.

Yuuta remembered the first day Erza had appeared inside his apartment without warning and declared, with complete confidence, that she was his wife and that Elena was their daughter. He could still remember how absurd the entire situation had seemed, how certain he had been that the silver-haired woman standing before him was completely insane and, more importantly, how close she had come to actually killing him during those first chaotic days.

A weak smile appeared upon his face.

"You really were crazy... Erza"

His voice trembled slightly, but the smile remained as another memory followed.

He remembered cooking for her for the first time and watching the surprise appear upon her face when she tasted his food. Erza had tried to maintain her usual pride, yet Yuuta had noticed how impressed she was, and somewhere between those early arguments and awkward meals, the woman who had initially expected him to simply obey her had slowly begun allowing him to stand beside her as an equal.

Then he remembered the zoo.

The memory came with Elena’s excited voice as she ran around between them, dragging her parents from one animal to another while Yuuta and Erza followed behind her. It had been during that trip that Yuuta held Erza’s hand for the first time, and even now he could remember exactly how it had felt.

Her hand had been pale like snow and unexpectedly soft, yet warm within his own.

Yuuta looked down at his palm as though some trace of that warmth might still remain there. He remembered how happy something so simple had made him, even though he had barely understood why at the time.

Then came the lion attack.

Another faint smile touched his lips as he remembered Erza saving him with ridiculous ease while he had been almost completely helpless.

"I really was weak back then..."

There was no bitterness in the thought. If anything, remembering his former weakness made the distance between who he had been and who he was now feel almost unbelievable.

The memories continued without giving him much time to breathe.

He remembered their shopping trips and the ridiculous arguments that followed whenever Erza discovered how he had spent his money. She would lecture him about wasting it on unnecessary things, while Yuuta would become irritated and remind her that she herself had once told him he would die after a year, so what exactly was he supposed to be saving it for?

Erza had always become upset whenever he said that.

Back then, Yuuta had found her reaction unreasonable.

Now he understood why she hated hearing him speak about his own death so casually.

His smile weakened as quieter memories replaced the amusing ones. He remembered Erza sitting upon the couch while he cooked in the kitchen, Elena playing somewhere nearby while occasionally interrupting both of them, and the three of them gathering around the dining table afterward.

They had laughed there.

They had argued there.

They had eaten together so many times that Yuuta had stopped thinking of those evenings as anything special.

His tear-filled eyes moved through the glass balcony door toward the dining table inside.

Two untouched plates were still waiting there.

Yuuta quickly looked away, but as he lowered his gaze, something else caught his attention.

The ring upon his finger.

His breathing slowed.

The black Eternal Ring remained exactly where it belonged.

Yuuta raised his hand and stared at it beneath the moonlight, his thumb slowly brushing across its surface. It was only a ring, yet the moment he touched it, another collection of memories opened before him.

He remembered Erza willingly giving it to Zeke for the interview test.

Then he remembered losing it.

Yuuta had rarely seen her become so genuinely upset over something so small, and at the time he hadn’t completely understood why the loss had affected her so much. All he had known was that the ring mattered to Erza, and because it mattered to her, he had gone searching for it.

He searched through the field long after the sun disappeared.

Hour after hour passed while he refused to give up

Then he saw it.

Even now, he could remember the relief that had struck him when he finally picked the ring up from the ground.

More than that, he remembered Erza’s face when he returned it.

She had been so happy that she hugged him tightly, holding him with enough strength to remind him that the woman embracing him was very much a dragon. Yuuta had complained at the time, but secretly, seeing her that happy had made the entire night of searching worth it.

His thumb stopped moving across the ring.

Later, he had accidentally worn it.

Yuuta remembered Erza pretending to be angry when she discovered what he had done. She had maintained that prideful expression and acted as though he had committed some terrible offense, but Yuuta had already begun learning how to read her by then.

She had been happy.

The black ring had remained upon his finger ever since.

Yuuta slowly curled his hand around it.

His weak smile finally disappeared as tears blurred the ring beneath his gaze. All those memories belonged to the same woman he had told was incapable of loving him properly, and the realization made it difficult to understand how they had gone from those ordinary days to an apartment where her dinner sat untouched and he didn’t even know where she was.

Yuuta lowered his forehead against his knees while keeping his hand tightly closed around the Eternal Ring.

"Why..."

His voice barely carried through the night air.

"Why did everything fall apart?"

Another tear rolled down his cheek and disappeared against his clothes. Yuuta closed his eyes, but the darkness only made yesterday’s memories return more clearly.

His own voice echoed inside his head.

I hate you too!

Yuuta’s fingers tightened painfully around the ring.

You hear me, Erza?!

He remembered her face.

He remembered the anger in his own voice and how desperately he had wanted answers about his parents, his nightmares and everything that had been happening to him. He had been scared and confused, and instead of admitting any of that, he had taken everything building inside him and thrown it at the person standing closest to him.

At Erza.

"I’m sorry, Erza..."

Yuuta whispered the words into the empty balcony, his voice breaking slightly as he lifted his head.

"I don’t hate you."

His eyes burned again.

"I love you more than anything."

Another tear slipped down his face, but before Yuuta could wipe it away, the cruelest memory returned.

I wish you would never come back!

Yuuta’s breathing stopped for a moment.

He couldn’t understand how those words had ever left his mouth.

Erza had already spent so much time believing she didn’t belong beside him, and he had known how awkward she became whenever she tried to express what she actually felt.

Yet when she had finally been standing in front of him, vulnerable and angry and hurt, he had chosen the exact words capable of confirming every fear she might have carried.

Yuuta lowered his face again.

"I’m sorry..."

His grip around the ring weakened.

"Erza, please come home."

There was no one on the balcony to answer him, but Yuuta continued anyway.

"Please."

His voice became quieter.

"I’m waiting for you."

For several seconds, nothing disturbed the peaceful night.

Then Yuuta noticed something.

His eyes moved toward the glass balcony door.

The surface was vibrating.

It was so faint that he initially wondered whether he had imagined it, but the glass trembled again, producing a quiet rattling sound against its frame. Yuuta slowly lifted his head and looked toward the metal railing beside him.

That was vibrating too.

Yuuta frowned.

"What...?"

He rose from the floor and wiped his face with his sleeve before looking out across Yuno City. The night still appeared peaceful from the balcony, with countless lights stretching between the buildings and the moon hanging above them exactly as it had moments earlier.

Yet something felt wrong.

Yuuta placed one hand against the railing.

A faint vibration travelled through the metal and into his palm.

Then the air changed.

The curtains behind the closed balcony door shifted slightly even though the glass separated them from the outside wind. Somewhere in the distance, birds suddenly erupted from the rooftops and disappeared into the night sky while Yuuta felt a strange pressure gathering inside his ears.

He instinctively swallowed.

The pressure remained.

Yuuta looked toward the distant darkness beyond the buildings, unable to see the Atlantic from where he stood. Whatever was happening was still far away, yet the vibrations beneath his hand were becoming stronger with every passing second.

It almost felt as though something enormous was breathing.

Yuuta’s expression slowly changed.

"Something’s wrong..."

The glass rattled harder.

A nearby car alarm suddenly activated somewhere below, followed several seconds later by another farther down the street. Lights appeared in neighboring apartments as confused residents approached their windows, trying to understand the same strange vibration Yuuta was feeling.

He stepped toward the balcony door.

His first thought was Elena.

Yuuta had barely turned around when the night exploded.

"RRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR—!!!"

Yuuta froze.

The roar struck Yuno City with enough force to make the entire apartment building violently shake beneath his feet. His hand immediately grabbed the balcony railing as the floor lurched, while hundreds of windows across the surrounding buildings began vibrating at once.

Then the first ones shattered.

A deafening crash erupted somewhere across the city, only to be swallowed almost immediately by another. Within seconds, hundreds became thousands as windows shattered throughout Yuno City at nearly the same time, creating a second horrifying sound beneath the continuing roar.

Glass rained from the buildings.

Car alarms began screaming throughout the streets while vehicles rocked beneath the pressure. Streetlights flickered violently, signs were ripped from storefronts, and anything light enough to be carried was suddenly thrown through the air. Papers, plastic containers, pieces of broken wood and countless fragments of debris spun between the buildings as though a hurricane had suddenly descended upon the city.

Dust erupted from the streets below.

Yuuta could barely see anymore.

The peaceful city he had been looking at only moments earlier disappeared behind an enormous cloud of dust and debris, illuminated occasionally by flickering lights. People were screaming somewhere below, but their voices were completely drowned beneath the monstrous sound rolling across Liebus.

"RRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR—!!!"

Yuuta dropped to the floor.

He pressed himself against the balcony wall and covered his head with both arms as the building continued shaking violently around him. His ears were already hurting, and the vibrations travelling through the concrete were so intense that his teeth felt as though they were rattling inside his mouth.

Then the lights went out.

The entire apartment plunged into darkness.

Yuuta barely had time to look toward the living room before the balcony windows finally gave way.

They exploded inward.

Glass blasted across the apartment as Yuuta instinctively covered his face and turned away. Several small fragments struck his hands and arms while another cut across his cheek, leaving thin trails of blood behind, but Yuuta barely registered the pain.

The roar was still going.

The entire building groaned around him as though it were struggling to remain standing. Furniture shifted across the floor, objects crashed from shelves and pieces of the ceiling broke loose while the violent wind entering through the destroyed windows tore through the apartment.

Yuuta remained close to the floor, shielding himself as best he could.

He didn’t understand what was happening.

He didn’t know what could possibly make a sound like this.

All he knew was that something somewhere beyond Yuno City had roared, and an entire city was suffering simply because it had made its presence known.

Then, gradually, the pressure began to weaken.

The roar remained audible in the distance, but the unbearable force behind it slowly disappeared. The building continued trembling for several seconds before finally beginning to settle, leaving only the sounds of alarms, falling debris and breaking objects throughout the city.

Yuuta stayed where he was.

His breathing came quickly as he slowly lowered his arms. Tiny cuts covered his hands, and blood ran from the shallow wound across his cheek, but he barely noticed any of it.

His ears were ringing.

For several seconds, he couldn’t properly hear anything beyond the high-pitched tone filling his head.

"What..."

Yuuta swallowed and tried to catch his breath.

"What was that...?"

His entire body was trembling.

He tried to push himself up, but something suddenly changed.

Yuuta stopped.

He couldn’t explain it.

There had been no voice calling his name, nor had he heard anyone approaching through the ruined apartment. Yet something inside his chest suddenly pulled his attention upward.

His heartbeat changed.

Yuuta slowly raised his head.

Through the shattered balcony windows, beyond the dust still drifting between the buildings and the debris falling through the night, he saw something above Yuno City.

A brilliant white figure crossed beneath the moon.

Two enormous brilliant-white wings were spread behind her, glowing softly against the darkness like moonlight given form. Silver-white hair moved around her beneath the remaining wind while a familiar figure remained suspended high above the damaged city.

Yuuta’s eyes widened.

For a moment, the destroyed apartment disappeared from his thoughts.

The roar disappeared.

The blood on his face and hands didn’t matter.

He knew that silhouette.

He would have recognized her anywhere.

"Erza..."

His voice came out barely above a whisper.

Yuuta stared upward, almost afraid that if he blinked she would disappear again.

"Erza..."

To Be Continued...