Chapter 227: The Weight of a Dragon Queen

Sara immediately stopped in her tracks, lowering her head even further.

Without even glancing at the countless frozen soldiers surrounding her, Erza spoke in the same indifferent tone, as though she were merely announcing something obvious.

"From this moment onward..."

"This entire agency..."

"...is under my command."

The declaration echoed throughout the frozen training facility.

For several long seconds, absolute silence filled the air. Every soldier stared at Erza with widened eyes, unable to comprehend what they had just heard. Although only their heads remained free from the ice, the disbelief written across their faces was impossible to hide.

Captain Lily’s pupils trembled uncontrollably as she struggled to process the queen’s words. High above, Raven stood frozen in place, her mind refusing to accept what had just happened. Even the members of the Shadow Unit exchanged stunned glances, wondering if they had somehow misheard the woman standing before them.

She...

She wants to take over the entire agency?

The thought alone sounded completely absurd.

This wasn’t merely another military base.

This was Liebus.

Humanity’s greatest stronghold.

The organization that had protected mankind from demons for generations.

Yet the woman standing before them had claimed ownership of it as casually as if she were reclaiming something that had always belonged to her. She hadn’t threatened them. She hadn’t negotiated. She hadn’t demanded permission.

She had simply declared it.

Sara slowly closed her eyes.

There was no anger within her.

Only resignation.

She understood something that none of her subordinates could possibly comprehend.

The battle had already ended the moment Erza stepped inside the agency.

From that very instant...

Liebus had already lost.

There was no point arguing with a Dragon Queen.

Sara knew enough about dragonkind to understand what awaited those who challenged their authority.

Dragons were creatures born at the very peak of existence. Their overwhelming strength had shaped an entire world of Nova, and with that strength came immeasurable pride.

They did not ask for permission. They did not seek approval. To question their authority was to challenge the very order they believed they stood above.

History had recorded countless kingdoms that disappeared after provoking dragonkind. Entire nations had been reduced to nothing more than forgotten ruins because a foolish Queens believed She could oppose a dragon’s pride. To dragons, power itself was justice, and those too weak to defend their convictions simply had no right to object.

Erza...

Was far beyond an ordinary dragon.

Sara had never personally met the Queen of Atlantis before today, nor did she know much about her personality. However, one truth had been passed down among every surviving member of the Blood Dynasty since ancient times.

If an ordinary dragon was a natural disaster...

Then the Queen of Dragon was the disaster that even dragons feared.

Knowing that, Sara understood there was only one path left to protect the people behind her.

She slowly opened her eyes once more, took a quiet breath, and accepted Erza’s declaration without offering the slightest objection.

High above the shattered walls of the training facility, Raven remained trapped within the thick layer of ice that had completely sealed her body.

Only her head remained exposed to the freezing air, allowing her to witness everything unfolding below. The cold continued eating away at her muscles, making even the slightest movement feel impossible, yet she refused to surrender.

Tiny streams of power quietly flowed through her body as she continuously searched for even the smallest weakness within the ice imprisoning her.

Her Brown eyes never left Erza.

The more she watched the woman standing in the middle of the battlefield, the heavier her heart became. Until a few moments ago, Raven had believed this intruder to be nothing more than an extraordinarily powerful enemy.

However, after witnessing Chief Sara kneel without resistance and hearing her repeatedly address the woman as "My Queen," everything Raven believed had begun falling apart.

No...

This can’t be real.

She immediately rejected that possibility.

It has to be her ability.

Just like Suriya Rakh...

A mental ability.

If this monster truly possessed the power to manipulate the minds of her victims, then nothing Sara had done could be trusted anymore. Everything the kneeling, the respect, the obedience could all be nothing more than carefully crafted illusions designed to destroy humanity from within.

Then... She rememeberd

Erza’s declaration echoed across the entire battlefield.

"From this moment onward..."

"This entire agency..."

"...is under my command."

Raven’s pupils violently contracted.

A surge of anger erupted inside her chest.

Humanity’s last hope...

She’s trying to take humanity’s last hope.

Her breathing gradually became heavier as she stared at the woman below.

"No..."

The word escaped through gritted teeth.

"I won’t let that happen."

Her eyes slowly shifted toward the members of the Shadow Unit frozen beside her.

Every one of them had heard Erza’s declaration.

Every one of them wore the same expression of disbelief.

Raven lowered her voice.

"Listen carefully."

"We’re breaking out."

One of the Shadow Unit members immediately looked toward her.

"But Captain... if we force our power now, won’t she notice?"

Raven’s gaze never left Erza.

"She probably will."

"But sitting here guarantees humanity loses."

Silence followed.

Nobody argued.

After several seconds, Raven quietly gave another order.

"Circulate your mana."

"Don’t attack."

"Don’t make unnecessary movements."

"Find a weakness in the ice."

"When the opportunity appears..."

"We break free together."

The members of the Shadow Unit silently nodded before closing their eyes.

One after another, they began circulating mana throughout their bodies as carefully as possible, desperately trying to create tiny fractures within the prison surrounding them.

Far below them, Lily was experiencing her own struggle.

The unnatural cold continued spreading deeper into her body with every passing second. Her arms had long since gone numb, and even moving her fingers had become impossible. The freezing ice slowly drained the warmth from her muscles, making every breath feel heavier than the last.

She looked around.

Almost every soldier had stopped speaking.

Some trembled uncontrollably.

Others had already closed their eyes, desperately conserving what little strength remained.

Yet Lily couldn’t afford to give up.

She replayed Erza’s declaration again inside her mind.

"This entire agency... is under my command."

Her heart pounded violently.

No...

If nobody says anything...

If nobody fights back...

Liebus will truly become hers.

She desperately searched the battlefield for anyone still capable of moving.

Her eyes wandered across the frozen soldiers...

Past the shattered walls...

Toward the damaged observation room...

Then suddenly...

She froze.

"...Fiona."

Hope immediately appeared in Lily’s eyes.

Standing near the observation platform was Fiona.

Unlike everyone else...

She wasn’t trapped inside the ice.

Lily almost couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

As the third strongest captain after Raven and Elga, Fiona was one of the very few people left who still possessed the strength to challenge Erza.

Lily immediately shouted with everything she had.

"Fiona!"

Her voice echoed throughout the silent battlefield.

Fiona slowly turned her head.

Lily gritted her teeth.

"What are you waiting for?!"

"Attack the intruder!"

Fiona stared at Lily in complete confusion.

Attack?

For several seconds she couldn’t understand why Lily would say something like that.

Her eyes instinctively drifted back toward Erza, and the terrifying memories from the Port Massacre resurfaced within her mind. She had witnessed Erza’s strength firsthand that day, but even then she hadn’t fully grasped the terrifying gap separating them. At the time, she had believed that if Sara arrived, everything would somehow work out.

After all...

Sara had always been their final line of defense.

Their strongest Chief.

The person everyone believed could overcome any crisis.

But today...

That belief had been completely shattered.

The very woman Fiona had trusted more than anyone else was now kneeling respectfully before Erza, addressing her as "My Queen."

The sight felt like a cruel joke.

The strongest person Fiona knew...

Had surrendered without even attempting to fight.

If even Sara acknowledged that monster’s authority...

Then what exactly was Fiona supposed to do?

Hearing Lily’s words, Erza’s violet eyes slowly narrowed as she turned her gaze toward the frozen captain.

Her expression remained calm, yet the slight movement alone caused everyone nearby to instinctively tense. It felt as though the temperature throughout the training facility had dropped several more degrees.

Seeing Erza look toward Lily, Sara’s heart immediately sank. She had spent centuries hearing stories about dragonkind, and she knew better than anyone present what happened to those who openly challenged a Dragon Queen’s authority.

"Lily!" Sara shouted, her usually composed voice filled with panic.

"Be silent! If you wish to live, do not speak another word."

The warning stunned every captain present.

Never before had they seen Chief Sara speak in such a desperate tone.

There was no authority behind her voice anymore, only genuine fear.

She wasn’t trying to protect Erza from Lily’s disrespect.

She was desperately trying to protect Lily from the consequences of provoking a Dragon Queen.

Unfortunately, Lily couldn’t understand Sara’s intentions.

Although her body remained imprisoned beneath the thick layer of ice, the anger burning inside her heart had only grown stronger.

She refused to lower her eyes, continuing to glare directly at Erza with undisguised hatred. In Lily’s mind, Sara had never willingly submitted.

She convinced herself that Erza possessed some terrifying ability capable of manipulating the minds of others. It was the only explanation she could accept.

Chief Sara was the strongest person in the agency.

The woman she admired more than anyone would never kneel before another being unless her mind had been taken from her.

Erza silently observed everyone standing before her.

Her gaze slowly swept across the frozen soldiers, the captains, and finally the members of the Shadow Unit.

She didn’t need to hear their thoughts because their expressions revealed everything.

Fear, suspicion, hatred, and disbelief still lingered within their eyes.

Even after witnessing Sara acknowledge her as queen, most of them still believed she had achieved it through deception rather than authority.

They looked at her as though she were merely another powerful enemy instead of the sovereign she truly was.

A faint sigh escaped Erza’s lips as disappointment quietly appeared within her eyes.

She had shown them mercy by sparing their lives, yet instead of understanding the gap separating them, they continued believing they possessed the strength to oppose her.

If words were incapable of making them understand, then there was only one way left to show them the truth.

Without moving from where she stood, Erza released her aura once again.

Unlike before, there wasn’t the slightest trace of killing intent within it.

She had no desire to slaughter anyone present.

This aura carried only one purpose to allow every person standing before her to witness exactly where they belonged in her presence.

The overwhelming pressure spread across the training facility in an instant, swallowing every corner of the battlefield.

Soldiers, captains, and even Sara felt their surroundings disappear as the world before their eyes completely changed.

It wasn’t reality but an illusion created by Erza’s overwhelming authority.

The endless training hall vanished, replaced by an infinite void where even the concept of distance no longer existed.

Every person instinctively looked upward, and the moment they did, the blood drained from their faces.

Standing above them was Erza.

She no longer resembled a human.

Her figure had become unimaginably vast, towering so high that the heavens themselves appeared insignificant beside her.

Her body stretched beyond the clouds while countless stars revolved around her like grains of dust. Those cold violet eyes gazed downward without hatred or anger.

They simply looked upon everyone with complete indifference, the same way a person might look down at insects crawling beneath their feet.

Only then did the agency members notice their own bodies.

They had become ants.

Tiny, powerless creatures standing before an existence so overwhelming that even imagining reaching her feet felt impossible.

The illusion wasn’t meant to frighten them.

It was Erza’s way of showing reality from a dragon’s perspective.

Humanity’s strongest soldiers, its greatest captains, and the organization they proudly called humanity’s last hope were nothing more than insignificant insects before one of the Seven Dragon Queens.

Sara felt every hair on her body stand on end.

Even though she knew it was only an illusion, her instincts completely ignored reason.

Every instinct born from her Blood Dynasty heritage screamed the same command over and over again.

Submit.

Beside her, Lily’s face lost all color.

The confidence that had allowed her to glare at Erza moments ago rapidly crumbled beneath the unimaginable pressure.

Her heart pounded violently inside her chest while every instinct begged her to lower her head.

She resisted with everything she had, but the more she fought, the more her mind felt as though it were being crushed beneath an invisible mountain.

Terrified screams echoed throughout the illusion as soldiers finally realized how foolish they had been. Some desperately tried to crawl away despite being unable to move.

Others shut their eyes and begged for the nightmare to end. Until this moment they had believed they were facing another powerful enemy.

Only now did they understand they had been standing before one of the rulers of Nova.

High above the battlefield, Raven finally felt the ice surrounding her begin to crack.

Using the power contained within the Aesthor Stone, she had almost broken free from her prison. Another moment was all she needed.

She silently gathered every remaining ounce of mana inside her body, preparing to shatter the ice in a single burst before launching an attack.

Before she could move, Erza smiled.

The quiet laugh that escaped the Dragon Queen’s lips immediately froze Raven’s blood. Without even bothering to look toward the observation platform, another surge of freezing mana spread from Erza’s body.

The cracks Raven had struggled to create instantly disappeared as a thicker layer of ice swallowed both her and the entire Shadow Unit once again.

Raven’s eyes widened in horror.

Only then did she realize the terrifying truth.

Erza had known from the very beginning.

Every attempt to escape...

Every movement of mana...

Every plan they had made...

She had noticed all of it.

She simply hadn’t cared.

That realization completely shattered Raven’s confidence.

Everything she believed could threaten Erza had been nothing more than the meaningless struggle of an ant trying to shake a mountain.

Even Sara couldn’t stop her body from trembling.

For centuries she had only heard stories about the Dragon Queens passed down through the Blood Dynasty.

Ancient records described them as divine rulers who stood above every race in Nova, beings before whom kings willingly surrendered their crowns. Until today those stories had always sounded exaggerated, but standing within Erza’s presence finally made Sara understand why dragons had ruled the world for countless ages.

It wasn’t because they possessed larger armies or stronger kingdoms.

It was because their existence alone made resistance feel meaningless.

Seeing more and more soldiers lose themselves beneath Erza’s overwhelming authority, Sara immediately lowered herself to both knees once again.

If this continued much longer, half of the agency would lose their minds before the battle had even begun.

"My Queen," Sara said respectfully, lowering her head until it almost touched the frozen floor.

"I believe they understand now. They have witnessed Your Majesty’s greatness and the immeasurable mercy you have shown by allowing them to remain alive in your presence. I humbly ask that you forgive their arrogance. They acted only out of ignorance, and I am certain they will honor your authority from this moment onward."

Erza quietly looked toward Sara before shifting her gaze across the countless soldiers frozen throughout the training facility.

Although their physical bodies remained trapped beneath thick layers of ice, her illusion had freed their consciousness, allowing them to witness the true difference between themselves and a Dragon Queen. What she saw made her remain silent for several moments.

The illusion had done far more than she intended.

Soldiers screamed in terror while desperately crawling away from the towering figure they believed would crush them at any moment.

Others had already collapsed to the ground, their eyes vacant as their minds failed to endure the overwhelming authority pressing upon their souls. Some continued begging for mercy despite nobody answering them, while others simply stared upward with expressions completely devoid of hope.

Erza let out a quiet sigh.

She had allowed herself to become irritated once again.

For a brief moment, she had forgotten that this wasn’t Nova.

This was Earth.

A world whose people possessed neither the resilience nor the spiritual strength of those born beneath the skies of Nova.

To her, releasing such an aura was nothing more than a simple reminder of reality. On Nova, even children born into noble families could withstand this level of pressure without losing consciousness.

However, Earth was different. Compared to the races of Nova, humanity here was incredibly fragile.

Almost...

Like paper.

If she wasn’t constantly mindful of her own strength, she could destroy everything around her without even realizing she had done so.

Realizing that, Erza slowly withdrew her aura.

The overwhelming pressure disappeared in an instant.

The endless void shattered like broken glass before everyone’s eyes, and the illusion dissolved completely. The towering figure that had dominated the heavens vanished, replaced once again by the familiar sight of the frozen training facility.

The unbearable weight crushing everyone’s souls disappeared as though it had never existed, allowing countless soldiers to gasp desperately for air.

Silence soon filled the battlefield.

However...

Nothing was the same anymore.

Nearly one-third of the agency’s soldiers had already lost consciousness, their bodies hanging limply within the ice imprisoning them. The remaining soldiers were barely any better. Their faces had turned deathly pale, cold sweat covered their foreheads, and many continued trembling uncontrollably even though the illusion had already ended.

Their eyes no longer held defiance.

Only fear.

Captain Lily remained completely speechless.

Her entire body shook uncontrollably as she stared at Erza with widened eyes. The anger that had burned inside her moments ago had completely disappeared, replaced by a fear so overwhelming that she couldn’t even bring herself to meet Erza’s gaze again.

For the first time in her life...

She truly understood how insignificant she was.

Everything she had proudly believed about her own strength now seemed laughable. Standing before one of the Seven Dragon Queens had shown her the harsh reality of this world. Compared to true power...

She was nothing.

High above the battlefield, Raven remained conscious, although even she struggled to control her breathing. Unlike the ordinary soldiers, the Shadow Unit had undergone years of specialized training to withstand overwhelming spiritual pressure.

Their missions frequently involved hunting aura demons capable of attacking the human mind, forcing them to strengthen both their bodies and their mental endurance far beyond that of ordinary agents.

Even so...

There were limits.

More than half of the Shadow Unit had already collapsed unconscious.

Several bodies tumbled from the shattered walls after losing control, crashing heavily onto the frozen ground below. The ice they had worked so desperately to break moments earlier had become meaningless. None of them possessed the awareness to continue fighting anymore.

Only the strongest members remained standing.

Even they looked exhausted.

Erza quietly observed the battlefield before letting out another soft sigh.

Without sparing anyone another glance, she turned toward Sara.

"Guide me."

Sara instinctively lowered her head.

"Yes... My Queen."

Her voice still trembled slightly.

She immediately turned toward the observation platform, where the only intact exit remained. Wanting to show proper respect, Sara leaped upward first before landing gracefully upon the platform, carefully positioning herself several steps ahead so she could personally guide the Dragon Queen through the agency.

Erza calmly walked toward the edge.

She was just about to step forward.

"NOW!"

Raven’s roar suddenly echoed throughout the training facility.

Sara’s eyes widened.

The next instant, dozens of dark figures burst from the ceiling like arrows released from a drawn bow.

Countless members of the Shadow Unit descended simultaneously, ignoring the injuries covering their bodies. Although more than half had already fallen unconscious, the survivors represented the elite among elites the highest-ranking operatives whose mental endurance far exceeded that of ordinary soldiers.

Each of them gripped their weapons with unwavering determination.

They knew they couldn’t win.

They knew death awaited them.

Yet none of them hesitated.

They chose to fight.

Erza slowly lifted her head.

A faint smile appeared upon her lips as her eyes met Raven’s from above.

There was no anger within that smile.

Only quiet amusement.

"You Humans..."

She gently shook her head.

"...never seem to learn when it’s time to surrender."

Her violet eyes slowly swept across every surviving member of the Shadow Unit before settling on Raven once again.

"Very well."

"If you insist on resisting..."

A chilling smile spread across Erza’s face.

"...then let us end this once and for all."

To be contiuned...