(Narrator POV)

Erza's footsteps echoed faintly against the cold corridor walls, but her mind was too restless to notice. She bit at her nail, a habit she had never picked up until recently, pacing back and forth as if the act could somehow summon Yuuta back into sight.

"Where the hell did that idiot mortal go…" she muttered, her voice low, tinged with irritation—but beneath it was something far heavier.

Worry.

Because every time she left him alone, something happened. Every single time. From the zoo incident to the cave in Libeus, she had always returned to find him either bleeding, captured, or tortured. It was as if trouble followed Yuuta like a curse, always lurking just a few steps behind him. And she… she could only arrive too late.

Her chest tightened, a dull ache pressing against her ribs.

Why am I running around like this? she thought suddenly, stopping mid-step. I'm a dragon. Not some blind human who has to search aimlessly… I can smell his scent. I should have known that from the start.

A dry laugh slipped past her lips, though it held no humor. "Pathetic. Have I really spent so much time with that fool that I've started thinking like a human?"

She stopped, lowering herself into stillness, her chest rising and falling with sharp, measured breaths. Her senses spread outward, invisible threads brushing across the air. Then—there. The faintest trace of Yuuta's scent. So fragile, so fleeting, but enough.

Her eyes narrowed, a predator's focus settling in.

There… I've found you.

She followed it quickly, each step heavier than the last. Her chest tightened, not from relief, but from a feeling she hated—fear.

The trail led her to a tall, cold structure. Metal walls rose like a fortress, lifeless and unwelcoming. The moment she saw it, her stomach sank.

An Agency lab?

Her thoughts spun. Why would Yuuta's scent lead here?

The gnawing unease inside her surged into a storm. Memories clawed their way to the surface, no matter how hard she tried to bury them. suppress clawed their way to the surface—Yuuta's nightmares, the torment he endured as a child. Experiments, pain, cruelty… things so horrific that the Elf Kingdom had sealed his memory to protect him.

If that seal broke now… Yuuta might never recover.

Her claws flexed, her body trembling with rage and urgency. She didn't wait. With one swing of her fist, the iron door shrieked and folded in on itself, crumpling like thin paper.

The air inside was heavy, almost alive. The place felt wrong, as though it were watching her, waiting to strike.

Erza tightened her fists, her breath steady but her heart racing.

She didn't have time. Every second counted.

With Fire burning in her eyes, she stepped inside.

The moment Erza stepped inside, the lights above flickered, stuttering between blinding white and deep shadow. The world seemed to breathe in jagged fragments—light, dark, light again. Her breath caught in her throat.

It was the same.

The walls, the sterile colors, the cold, suffocating layout. Everything matched the lab she had once seen inside Yuuta's fractured memories. The only difference was the absence of equipment. No tables. No cages. None of the cruel machines that had scarred him.

And yet… the air still carried their echo, as if the ghosts of those instruments lingered, pressing against her like invisible chains.

Her boots crunched against something brittle. She looked down. Broken glass, scattered like jagged stars across the tiles. She crouched, fingertips grazing the shards. That's when she noticed it—a streak smeared across the floor.

Blood.

Erza's chest tightened. She followed the trail, her steps quick and soundless, until it pooled into a darker stain. Kneeling, her sharp eyes caught the color immediately. Not red.

Purple.

Her instincts flared. Without hesitation, she dipped a clawed fingertip into the thick liquid, raised it to her nose, and inhaled. A bitter tang hit her senses. She pressed her tongue lightly against her finger.

The taste was unmistakable.

Her breath stilled.

"Kurai Arka spider…" she whispered, disbelieving. Her voice trembled with the weight of recognition. "Here? On Earth?"

Her heart hammered in her chest. Kurai Arka spiders were not mere beasts. They were nightmares from Ruie—creatures infamous for their venom. A single droplet could melt through flesh and bone in seconds. Against most beings, it was instant death.

"What… is something like this doing here?" she muttered, her body taut with unease.

But that wasn't the worst part. If a Kurai Arka spider had been here… then who had killed it?

Before she could unravel the thought, something pressed against her chest. Not a hand. Not a blow. But a crushing, suffocating weight, as if the very air was alive and bearing down on her. Her dragon instincts screamed, every nerve alight with alarm.

This wasn't the aftermath of a battle.

This was something else entirely.

Erza froze.

The air thickened suddenly, pressing down on her chest like an invisible mountain. It wasn't divine—it wasn't demonic either. It was something in between, a cursed divinity that defied her understanding.

The entire lab shuddered under the weight of that presence. Walls groaned, floors trembled, even the iron pipes above her head rattled as if the very building were trying to bow beneath its might.

Her eyes widened. Who…? Who possesses such strength that even I must acknowledge their existence?

Normally, For someone to make her reconsider, to force her focus, they had to be a high-level threat. And yet… this pressure didn't feel overwhelmingly strong. But it demanded her attention. Insistently. Dangerously.

Then, as suddenly as it came, it vanished. The trembling stopped. The lab went silent.

Gone in an instant, as though it had never been there at all. The silence that followed was so unnatural it clawed at her instincts.

What just happened? she wondered, her pulse quickening.

Before she could dwell on it, the corridors blazed red as emergency lights flickered to life. Sirens wailed, and a mechanical voice echoed through every corner of the lab.

"Warning. Warning. All doors sealed. Subject detected. Demon King's master confirmed."

Her heart jolted. "What?"

Archdemon's master—found this easily?

Impossible… how could Sara identify him so quickly?

Then—she heard it.

A roar. Not a beast's cry, but a warrior's. A voice she knew, distant yet familiar, so much that her chest tightened. Her heartbeat quickened, not from anticipation but from fear. Genuine fear. And Erza rarely knew that feeling.

Why am I afraid?

Her heartbeat quickened. A fear unlike anything she had felt gripped her chest. She didn't know why she was afraid—fear had no reason—but she knew something was terribly wrong.

Her body moved before her mind caught up. She bolted down the corridor, her sharp ears guiding her toward the sounds echoing through the steel walls.

The thud of fists. The crunch of bone. The repeated rhythm of blows striking flesh. Each sound made her heart sink further, dread gnawing at her from the inside.

The faster she ran, the worse it became. With every step, with every strike she heard, the fear of losing someone clawed at her chest.

Her speed increased, her body moving faster than she thought possible. Walls and doors shattered in her wake, glass and steel flying in all directions. She pushed herself to nearly ninety kilometers per hour, her raw power carrying her forward.

Finally, she reached the source.

A massive door loomed before her, its surface glowing with a light so intense it burned her eyes. This was no ordinary door—it was a high-security containment chamber, meant to hold only the strongest of demons. The warning throbbed from the seals, heavy and insistent, as if the door itself were screaming at her to stay away.

And yet, Erza's instincts refused to obey.

Why… why do I feel this way? she whispered, unease twisting her gut. If it's only Sara and the others striking down an arch demon, I shouldn't…

Her breath hitched. Then the truth began to press against her mind, cold and heavy.

It wasn't the sound of demons being beaten. It was… different. Human. The rhythm of the blows, the subtle shifts in strain and effort—it wasn't anything she had heard from her enemies before.

Her hand went to the glowing seal, trembling. The heat scorched her skin, and every instinct screamed to stop, to step back. But her heart—her heart refused to listen.

Erza didn't yet know the horrifying truth. The one being struck, the one struggling behind that sealed door… it was Yuuta. Her husband.

And he couldn't even scream.

If he had, even the faintest sound, Erza would have recognized his voice immediately. But now… he was being brutally beaten in silence, each strike a dagger to her mind, even though she didn't yet realize whose body it was.

The thought of what could be happening behind that door made her chest tighten. Fear clawed at her, sharp and consuming. And yet, she could not turn away.

Erza pressed her hand against the lock. The device scanned her palm, humming softly before a cold mechanical voice greeted her.

"Welcome back, Special Commander."

The seals unraveled, glowing lines retreating like frightened serpents. With a hiss, the massive door slid open.

She stepped inside. The air felt heavier than steel, every breath sharp and oppressive. Her boots clicked softly against the fractured floor, crunching over broken glass that glittered like shards of ice. The walls bore cracks and scars, as though something had exploded outward, as though the very room had been forced to bow beneath an overwhelming aura.

Then she saw it.

Blood.

Dark streaks smeared across the tiles, splattered in cruel patterns, leading her eyes forward like a trail she didn't want to follow. Her heart faltered, then hammered painfully in her chest.

And at the end of that trail—she saw them.

Elga.

The lion-blooded warrior crouched low, her massive frame looming like a beast over its prey. Her fist was raised, ready to strike again. Beneath her, a broken body lay sprawled across the ruined floor.

Erza's steps faltered. The shape was familiar. Too familiar.

Her breath caught in her throat. No…

"Elga…" she whispered, voice unsteady, trembling with dread.

Elga turned, smirking as if proud of her hunt. "This prey is mine," she said sharply. "Don't even think about touching it. I won't let you take this one from me, Erza." She pressed her hand down hard, leaving fresh marks of possession on the body beneath her.

Erza's eyes locked on the prey. Her chest constricted as she forced herself to look.

And then the world fell apart.

Yuuta.

His face was unrecognizable, swollen and bloodied. One eye had nearly closed shut, the other barely managed to flicker open. The lips she remembered soft with quiet words were split, bleeding. Bones jutted under torn flesh, the result of blow after merciless blow.

Erza's breath stopped.

For a heartbeat, she felt nothing—just silence, as though her heart itself had forgotten how to beat.

Then, rage.

Her aura erupted without her permission. A tidal wave of killing intent swept through the chamber. The floor cracked, walls groaned, and every single person in the room stiffened, paralyzed. The air turned heavy, suffocating, and deadly cold.

Elga froze mid-strike. Even her predator's instinct screamed that to move now would mean instant death.

Slowly, Yuuta turned his battered face toward the door. Through the haze of blood and pain, one swollen eye cracked open just enough to see her.

"Erza…"

The whisper wasn't even there—just the shape of his lips, soundless, broken.

And Erza—her body trembled. Her chest heaved with ragged breaths. She opened her mouth, but the words spilled out like shattered glass, trembling, fragile, and filled with despair.

"Yuuta…"

Her voice cracked. It wasn't the voice of a queen. It wasn't the voice of a dragon.

It was the voice of a woman breaking.

The name fell from her mouth like a prayer, like a curse, like the last piece of her soul.

Yuuta forced his head to lift, every movement screaming against the broken pieces of his body. Blood ran down his face, blurring his vision, but through the haze he found her.

Erza.

She stood in the doorway, trembling. Her aura, wild and unstable, shook the very chamber. But it wasn't anger in her eyes—it was sorrow. A sorrow so raw that Yuuta felt it pierce deeper than any blow Elga had given him.

He had seen that look before.

Once, when grief consumed her, when the weight of loss nearly crushed her, Erza's eyes had carried that same shadow. That day, Yuuta had made himself a vow—a vow whispered only to his own heart.

That he would never let her cry again.

Now, here she was, on the edge of breaking. Her body shook as though she might collapse at any moment, her lips parting but no sound escaping. She looked at him as if the world had already ended, as if she couldn't take another breath without shattering.

Yuuta's swollen eye stung as he blinked, but he refused to look away. He couldn't let her see him weak. He couldn't break the promise.

So he did the only thing he could.

He smiled.

It was faint, crooked, and drenched in pain. His lips were split, blood staining his teeth, but somehow he managed it. A smile.

Erza froze. Her heart lurched, her breath catching.

That smile—it was ridiculous. The Idiotic Smile. To smile like that, in this condition… it was pure madness. She could feel his agony, could see the broken bones beneath his skin, the blood pooling at his side. And still… he smiled.

Not for himself.

For her.

He endured the pain, swallowed the screams, just so she wouldn't fall apart. Just to keep his promise alive.

Her vision blurred, tears she had sworn never to shed trembling at the corners of her eyes. She bit down hard, trying to stop the sound threatening to escape her throat.

It hurt more than anything.

And yet, in that hurt, something inside her shifted.

This moment… this foolish, beautiful smile…The Idiotic smile was her breaking point.

No, more than that.

It was her turning point.

To be continued…

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.