Location: Liebus Agency
Place: Anaya City – Main Headquarters
Fiona and Erza stood before the towering headquarters of the Liebus Agency. The massive structure rose high above the city skyline, its walls forged from rare alloys that reflected the afternoon sunlight like polished steel. Every corner of the building radiated technological superiority. From the countless surveillance systems embedded within its exterior to the defensive cannons concealed beneath its armor plating, even an ordinary person could tell this was no ordinary headquarters. It was a Z+ class defensive fortress, regarded as one of humanity’s greatest achievements in military science.
Erza’s Voliet eyes slowly traveled upward until they settled on the highest floor.
She could feel it.
A powerful presence quietly rested there.
There was no mistaking it.
Sara.
Even from this distance, Erza could sense the overwhelming aura belonging to the Vampire Chief. Her grip unconsciously tightened. She hadn’t come merely to visit Anaya headquarters. She had come for answers. Ever since Fiona finished telling Anaya’s story, countless questions had refused to leave her mind. What had truly happened after Anaya’s death? Why had Sara, a being capable of wiping kingdoms from existence, chosen to protect humanity instead of destroying it?
None of it made sense.
Only Sara herself possessed those answers.
Fiona walked toward the entrance and stopped before a pair of enormous metallic doors. Thick reinforced plating covered their surface, while dozens of hidden security devices watched every movement in complete silence. She reached into her pocket and removed her identification card before placing it against the scanner.
A soft mechanical chime echoed through the hallway.
"Captain Fiona."
"Identity confirmed."
"Retinal scan complete."
"Welcome back."
A second scanner projected a beam of light across Fiona’s face before the artificial intelligence finished its final verification.
"Access granted."
With a deep metallic rumble, the massive doors slowly slid apart.
Fiona stepped inside without hesitation.
Erza quietly followed behind her.
The interior of the headquarters was even larger than it appeared from outside. White marble floors stretched endlessly beneath their feet while holographic displays floated throughout the corridors. Officers wearing black agency uniforms hurried between departments, each carrying stacks of documents or digital tablets, too focused on their duties to notice the unfamiliar woman walking behind Fiona.
Fiona, however, remained alert.
Her eyes constantly wandered through the surrounding hallways.
She wasn’t worried about ordinary officers.
Lower-ranking agents would never dare question one of the Seven Captains.
The real problem was someone of equal authority.
If Captain Erika or Captain Elga happened to cross paths with them, questions would immediately follow. Fiona had entered the headquarters without reporting Erza’s arrival, something that directly violated agency protocol. Until Erza met Chief Sara herself, Fiona intended to keep her presence completely hidden.
Without slowing down, Fiona quietly altered their route.
Instead of walking toward the central elevators reserved for captains, she turned toward an emergency staircase.
Erza immediately noticed the change.
"We’re taking the stairs?" she asked.
Fiona nodded while continuing upward.
"The elevators record every passenger entering the upper floors," she answered without looking back. "If another captain checks today’s access logs, they’ll know someone entered illegally."
Erza understood immediately.
Neither of them spoke again.
The only sound echoing through the stairwell was the steady rhythm of their footsteps as they climbed floor after floor.
Fiona remained several steps ahead, occasionally glancing over her shoulder to make sure no one had entered behind them.
Erza quietly followed.
Then, halfway up the staircase,
Erza suddenly stopped.
A soft white light emerged from the ring wrapped around her finger. The Eternal Flower Ring. The white Dragon engraved into its surface slowly began glowing with a gentle radiance, pulsing like a heartbeat, like a warning.
Erza frowned. Her eyes remained fixed on the ring. The Eternal Flower Ring never reacted without reason. Whenever it awakened like this, something involving her or her destined partner was about to happen as mentioned in the ancient texts.. Sometimes it warned of danger. Other times, it responded to changes in fate itself.
A strange uneasiness settled inside her heart.
Why now?
She silently stared at the glowing ring, unable to understand its warning. Was something about to happen to Yuuta? Was he in danger? Had the sealed memories begun to crack?
Erza did not move. Her eyes remained fixed on the ring, her mind racing with possibilities.
What was happening to Yuuta?
Or... was fate itself beginning to change?
She didn’t know.
Several steps above her, Fiona finally noticed Erza had stopped climbing. She turned around, her brow furrowing with concern.
"What are you doing?" Fiona asked quietly, careful not to raise her voice inside the stairwell. "Come this way. We are almost there."
She was already nearly twenty-six steps above Erza, gesturing for her to continue, her voice tight with urgency.
Erza glanced at the glowing ring one last time.
The uneasy feeling inside her chest refused to disappear. For a brief moment, she considered turning back, considered abandoning this mission and returning to Yuuta, to make sure he was safe.
Then she slowly closed her hand, hiding the ring’s glow beneath her fingers.
"...It can wait," she murmured to herself.
Ignoring the warning, Erza resumed climbing the stairs, unaware that the ring had sensed a change in fate long before either of them realized what was about to unfold.
As Fiona led Erza through the fifth-floor corridor, she finally allowed herself to relax a little.
They had successfully avoided the central elevators, avoided the other captains, and, most importantly, avoided drawing unnecessary attention.
The hallway ahead was unusually quiet, with only the distant hum of machinery and the occasional footsteps of agency personnel echoing through the building.
"Just a little farther..." Fiona thought to herself. "If we can reach the Chief’s office without anyone noticing, everything will be fine."
Fate, however, had other plans.
From the opposite end of the hallway, four young women in black agency uniforms appeared, chatting happily among themselves as they headed toward the cafeteria for their lunch break.
The silver emblem stitched onto their sleeves identified them as members of the Memory Dispatch Team, a specialized division responsible for erasing civilian memories after supernatural incidents.
They were among the lowest-ranking officers in the agency, people who would never normally question one of the Seven Captains.
The moment they noticed Fiona, all four immediately straightened their posture.
"Good afternoon, Captain Fiona," one of them greeted respectfully with a bow. "It’s an honor to see you."
Fiona returned the gesture with a polite nod.
"Good afternoon."
She intended to continue walking without stopping.
As long as they exchanged nothing more than simple greetings, everything would remain under control.
There was no reason for anyone to suspect anything.
As the four women bowed politely, one of them instinctively glanced past Fiona’s shoulder.
It lasted for only a brief moment, yet that single glance was enough to stop her in her tracks.
A strange feeling settled deep within her chest, one she couldn’t describe.
Her heartbeat suddenly quickened, and an overwhelming sense of dread spread across her body.
She had experienced this exact feeling once before, although she had prayed she would never feel it again.
Her breathing became shallow as memories she had desperately tried to bury forced themselves back into her mind.
A frozen harbor appeared before her eyes, followed by a sea stained crimson with blood. Mountains of ice towered above the battlefield while an overwhelming pressure crushed her entire squad before anyone had the chance to react.
The memory struck her all at once, causing her eyes to widen in horror.
"No..."
The whisper escaped her trembling lips.
Fiona immediately noticed the sudden change in the woman’s expression and followed her terrified gaze.
Behind her, Erza calmly stepped into the corridor, her expression as composed as ever. The lively atmosphere disappeared the instant she appeared, leaving behind a suffocating silence that spread throughout the hallway.
The four women hadn’t reacted because they had discovered an intruder. They reacted because they recognized her. Every trace of color vanished from their faces.
One woman’s knees nearly gave way beneath her, another instinctively staggered backward, while the remaining two stood rooted to the floor, their entire bodies trembling uncontrollably as though Death itself had chosen to walk before them.
Erza observed their frightened expressions with quiet curiosity before tilting her head slightly.
"...Do I know you?"
There wasn’t the slightest hint of mockery in her voice. She genuinely searched her memories, her violet eyes carefully studying each of their faces.
"I feel as though we’ve met before."
One of the women slowly raised a trembling finger toward Erza. Her lips quivered so violently that no words would come at first. Tears welled in her eyes as terror completely overwhelmed her.
"M... M..."
Her voice cracked.
"M-Monster!"
The word escaped her lips like a scream, shattering the silence that had gripped the corridor.
Three of the young women turned around and fled in complete panic, scattering down separate hallways as though remaining together would only make them easier to kill.
Their footsteps echoed wildly throughout the corridor while terrified screams spread through the surrounding floors.
Only one woman remained.
Not because she wanted to.
Because fear had stolen the strength from her legs.
She stared at Erza, unable to breathe properly.
Every horrifying memory from the port resurfaced inside her mind.
The frozen ocean.
The shattered containers.
The overwhelming aura that had crushed everyone present.
Erza blinked.
"...Was I really that frightening? Or are humans simply this cowardly?"
The question left her lips with genuine curiosity, almost innocent in its tone.
To the terrified officer, however, it was anything but innocent.
It was unbearable.
Her body suddenly responded again.
She spun around, nearly dropping the communicator clipped to her shoulder before desperately pressing the activation button and start running away.
"C-Control!" she shouted, her voice breaking. "Control, respond immediately!"
The radio crackled to life.
"This is Central Control. State your emergency."
The young woman’s breathing became ragged. Her hands trembled so violently she could barely hold the communicator.
"T-The..."
She swallowed hard, forcing the words past the fear tightening around her throat.
"The monster from the port..."
Another shaky breath escaped her.
"...has infiltrated headquarters!"
Her voice rose into a terrified scream.
"Immediate lockdown! Fifth floor! Training corridor! Humanity-level threat confirmed!"
Erza blinked before a look of realization crossed her face.
"...Ah."
She lightly tapped her chin.
"Now I remember."
Her voice remained as calm and indifferent as ever.
"They were among the soldiers outside the port."
She paused for a moment, recalling the scene.
"My ice golems were eliminating everyone there."
The words were spoken so casually that a chill ran down Fiona’s spine.
In an instant, the memories returned with terrifying clarity. She remembered the port consumed by chaos, where towering ice ogres and relentless ice knights had slaughtered soldiers without mercy. Their screams had echoed across the battlefield as blood stained the docks, while countless lives were erased in a matter of moments.
She remembered using herself as bait, risking everything just to reach Erza while the remaining soldiers desperately fought to hold back the advancing monsters.
Until this moment, Fiona had believed that everyone who had witnessed that battle had perished.
Only now did she realize the truth.
There had been survivors at the port.
Fiona slowly closed her eyes.
"...Damn it."
At almost the exact same moment, the communicator attached to her own uniform vibrated violently.
A shrill emergency alarm echoed through the device.
"Warning. Warning. Humanity-Level Threat detected."
"Location confirmed: Fifth Floor, Training Corridor."
"All combat divisions respond immediately."
The announcement repeated across the entire headquarters.
A heartbeat later, red emergency lights began flashing throughout every hallway.
Heavy security doors slammed shut.
Steel barriers descended from the ceiling.
The calm headquarters transformed into a battlefield in less than ten seconds.
The artificial intelligence governing the building spoke in its usual emotionless tone.
"Emergency Protocol Seven activated."
"Humanity-Level Threat detected."
"All available captains report immediately."
"Combat authorization granted."
Fiona stood completely still.
Everything...
Everything she had spent the last hour trying to avoid had collapsed in an instant.
She had avoided the elevators.
She had chosen hidden routes.
She had carefully watched every corridor.
Yet a chance encounter with four ordinary officers had exposed everything.
Within minutes, every captain inside the headquarters would know Erza was here.
She slowly turned toward the Dragon Queen.
Erza, however, seemed strangely calm.
Her Voliet eyes wandered across the flashing emergency lights before drifting upward toward the highest floor of the headquarters.
She could still feel Sara’s presence.
A faint smile slowly formed on her lips.
"So..."
she thought quietly.
"I wonder..."
Her Voliet eyes narrowed with quiet amusement.
"If I start destroying this place..."
"...will that vampire finally come down herself?"
_______________________________________
(Yuuta’s Apartment – Garden)
The afternoon breeze drifted gently through the apartment garden as Yuuta once again sat cross-legged beneath the old tree, his eyes closed and his breathing calm.
Hours had passed since their training began, yet neither master nor disciple had shown any intention of stopping.
Yuuta had failed countless times to reach the final stage of aura, but unlike before, Isvarn no longer looked frustrated.
His ancient eyes remained fixed on the young man with quiet confidence.
After observing every failure, every mistake, and every moment Yuuta had entered the Silent Realm, the old dragon was finally certain he had discovered the true reason the training kept ending in failure.
Before allowing Yuuta to begin his meditation, Isvarn folded his arms and spoke in a calm but commanding voice.
"Before you eliminate the sound around you, I want you to forget that you are human." The unexpected instruction immediately pulled Yuuta out of his concentration.
He opened his eyes and looked at the old dragon in complete confusion.
"What?" he asked, genuinely caught off guard.
Before another word could leave his mouth, a wooden stick landed squarely across his back with a loud smack.
Yuuta immediately grabbed the sore spot and winced.
"Ouch!" he cried, glaring at the old dragon. Isvarn remained completely expressionless.
"I told you not to become distracted during my lesson," he replied coldly.
"Do exactly as I tell you."
Yuuta rubbed his aching back before letting out a defeated sigh.
"I understand," he muttered,
"but how am I supposed to forget that I’m human when... I actually am human?" No sooner had the sentence left his mouth than another sharp strike landed on the top of his head.
Yuuta immediately covered it with both hands.
"Ow! Grandpa!" he complained.
Isvarn looked at him with a mixture of disappointment and disbelief before letting out a long sigh.
For a brief moment, he genuinely questioned whether Yuuta had any imagination at all.
"Don’t be dumb," he said while pointing at Yuuta’s forehead with the stick.
"I’m not asking you to deny reality. I’m telling you to use your imagination. Whatever is the very first thing that comes into your mind... become that."
Yuuta blinked several times, trying to understand the explanation, but his expression only became more confused.
"How am I supposed to become the first thing that comes into my mind?" he asked honestly. "This is somehow even harder to understand than Erza’s theory."
Isvarn pinched the bridge of his nose before slowly exhaling.
He reminded himself that teaching required patience, even when the student sitting before him happened to be unbelievably dense.
Rather than continuing to explain, he walked forward and lowered himself until he was sitting directly opposite Yuuta.
Reaching out, he gently held both of Yuuta’s hands, making sure the young man focused entirely on him.
"Stop thinking so much," he said calmly.
"Simply follow my instructions exactly as I give them to you." Yuuta nodded seriously this time.
Whatever confusion remained inside his mind, he chose to set it aside.
If Isvarn believed this was the correct path, then he would trust him.
"Close your eyes," Isvarn instructed quietly.
Yuuta obeyed immediately.
"Now begin eliminating every sound around you."
Taking a slow breath, Yuuta once again descended into the Silent Realm.
Just as he had practiced countless times before, he began removing every sound one after another. The distant noise of passing vehicles disappeared first.
Then the rustling leaves faded away.
The chirping birds vanished soon afterward, followed by the gentle breeze brushing across the garden.
He continued sinking deeper into silence until even Isvarn’s breathing ceased to exist within his perception.
Before long, the world around him became completely still, leaving behind nothing but endless silence.
Watching quietly from the outside, Isvarn allowed himself a faint smile.
Although Yuuta had repeatedly failed to awaken his aura, he had unknowingly mastered one of the most difficult foundations of spiritual training.
Many accomplished warriors spent decades attempting to achieve this level of concentration, yet Yuuta had reached it after only a short period of practice.
The old dragon genuinely felt proud of his disciple’s progress.
The boy still couldn’t see it himself, but his talent was extraordinary.
Knowing Yuuta could no longer hear ordinary sounds, Isvarn gently released a thread of mana.
The magic flowed directly into Yuuta’s consciousness, allowing his voice to bypass the physical world entirely.
Instead of speaking through the air, Isvarn’s words echoed directly inside Yuuta’s mind.
"Now," his voice whispered through the telepathic connection,
"try to see with your soul’s eyes."
Yuuta remained calm.
The strange sensation of hearing someone’s voice inside his head no longer surprised him because Erza had used the same method long ago to motivate him in shopping mall. Instead, he became confused by the instruction itself.
"Soul’s eyes?" he asked mentally.
"What does that even mean?"
Isvarn answered without hesitation.
"Keep your eyelids closed and try to see anyway. Do not use your physical sight. Look with your soul." Yuuta carefully followed the instruction. Several moments passed in complete silence before Isvarn’s voice reached him again.
"Tell me... what do you see?"
Yuuta concentrated as hard as he could, but no matter how desperately he searched, nothing appeared before him.
There was no light, no shape, no image, no color.
Only endless darkness stretched across his consciousness. "I can’t see anything," Yuuta admitted honestly.
"Everything is completely dark."
A faint smile appeared on Isvarn’s face.
"Good," he replied.
"That is exactly what I wanted."
Yuuta remained confused, but before he could ask another question, Isvarn continued.
"Now empty your mind completely. Remove every thought, every memory, every emotion. Leave nothing behind." Yuuta obeyed without hesitation.
One by one, every thought drifting through his consciousness disappeared until his mind became as empty as the darkness surrounding him.
Only after sensing that Yuuta had reached perfect stillness did Isvarn give the next instruction.
"Now," he said through the telepathic connection, his voice carrying unusual seriousness,
"fill that emptiness with the very first thought that naturally appears inside your heart."
Yuuta hesitated.
"The... first thought?"
He slowly searched the empty darkness within himself, waiting for the very first image, feeling, or instinct to reveal itself.
And then.....
To be continued...
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