Chapter 318: It Wasn’t Erza

Elena stood between Yuuta and Zeri with both arms stretched out, desperately trying to make her tiny body into a shield for her father.

She was trying her hardest to look brave, but Yuuta could see her legs trembling beneath her, her shoulders shaking with every breath while tears continued running down her cheeks.

She had just watched Zeri kill the remaining Shadow Corps soldiers without effort, and she was terrified, yet she refused to move.

Zeri stared down at the little girl without saying anything. There was no amusement in his golden eyes anymore, only the same cold expression he had worn since deciding to end the fight.

"Elena..." Yuuta forced out, desperately trying to reach her.

His fingers scraped against the rubble, but his arm barely moved. He tried forcing strength into his legs next, only to feel nothing respond. The helplessness was suffocating. His daughter was standing directly in front of a High Demon, and he couldn’t even move enough to pull her behind him.

Move. Please... just move.

Elena clenched her tiny fists and forced herself to stare into Zeri’s golden eyes.

"Don’t touch my...."

She never finished.

Something flashed through the air so quickly that Yuuta couldn’t even follow it.

BOOM!

Elena’s tiny body was suddenly thrown across the street. She struck the road several meters away and rolled across the pavement before finally coming to a stop.

Yuuta’s mind went blank.

"Elena...?"

His eyes widened in horror as he stared at the place where she had landed. For several seconds, he couldn’t understand what had happened because he hadn’t even seen the attack. Only when his gaze slowly returned toward Zeri did he notice one of the demon’s tentacles hovering exactly where Elena had been standing moments earlier.

Zeri had hit her.

He had moved so quickly that Yuuta hadn’t even seen the tentacle strike.

Zeri glanced toward Elena with irritation before turning back toward Yuuta.

"Annoying. I don’t have time for this heroic-sacrifice nonsense."

Yuuta froze.

For several seconds, there was nothing inside his mind.

No pain.

No exhaustion.

No Raven.

No Shadow Corps.

Nothing.

He simply stared at Elena lying on the road.

Then something inside him snapped.

"YOU...!"

His voice tore through his already damaged throat, sending pain through his chest, but Yuuta didn’t feel it anymore.

"YOU MOTHERFUCKER!"

Zeri’s expression hardened. One of the tentacles behind him shot forward, wrapped around Yuuta’s neck and violently pulled him from the rubble. Yuuta’s broken body was lifted effortlessly into the air before Zeri dragged him close enough that their faces were only inches apart.

"Why are you screaming at me, Uncle?"

Yuuta didn’t answer.

His arms could barely move and his legs were almost completely useless. The tentacle around his neck was making it increasingly difficult to breathe, but there was one part of his body he could still move.

Yuuta pulled his head backward.

Then smashed his forehead directly into Zeri’s face.

BANG!

The impact echoed through the ruined building. Yuuta’s forehead split open immediately, sending warm blood down between his crimson eyes, while Zeri’s head snapped backward from the unexpected blow. A wound appeared across the High Demon’s forehead as well, although it immediately began closing.

Yuuta didn’t care about the blood covering his own face. He had never deliberately hurt Elena, nor had he ever imagined doing so. He had carried her through danger, protected her from things she shouldn’t see and repeatedly put his own body between her and death. Even when Elena’s frightened cry had distracted him from the attack that might have killed Zeri, he hadn’t blamed her for a second.

She was his daughter.

And Zeri had struck her directly in front of him.

Yuuta’s entire body trembled with rage as he stared into the demon’s golden eyes.

"I’ll kill you."

There was no scream this time. His voice was quiet, trembling from both pain and fury, yet the certainty behind those words made Zeri’s expression change.

"I swear I’ll kill you," Yuuta continued, blood slowly running down his face. "And I’ll make sure you pay for everything you’ve done."

For the briefest moment, Zeri felt that strange fear again.

It made no sense. The man hanging in front of him was barely conscious, his body was broken, his aura was almost exhausted, and that mysterious power from their previous clash was nowhere to be seen. Yet when Zeri looked into those glowing crimson eyes, something deep inside him reacted as though Yuuta’s words weren’t an empty threat.

Zeri’s face twisted in irritation.

The tentacle around Yuuta’s neck suddenly swung outward and released him with tremendous force, sending him flying from the ruined building and onto the open road. Yuuta struck the pavement shoulder-first before rolling violently several times, every impact sending another wave of agony through his already damaged body.

When he finally stopped, the entire world seemed to continue spinning around him. Yuuta remained there for several seconds, barely conscious, before pressing one trembling hand against the pavement.

Move.

His arm shook violently.

"Move..."

Yuuta tried forcing himself upward, but his elbow immediately collapsed beneath him. He clenched his teeth and tried again, refusing to accept what his body was telling him.

"Come on, you stupid body... Just once."

His fingers dug against the cracked road.

"Please... move one more time."

Nothing happened.

Footsteps slowly approached him.

Yuuta opened his eyes and saw Zeri walking across the ruined road toward him. The High Demon stopped several meters away, looking down at Yuuta’s broken body with an expression that contained none of his earlier playfulness.

"You’re going to kill me?" Zeri asked coldly. "Don’t joke around with me, Uncle. Look at yourself. You can’t stand, you can barely move your arms, and your entire body is practically broken."

He stepped closer while his tentacles spread behind him.

"And you’re still telling me that you’re going to kill me? How?"

Yuuta slowly turned his head toward him.

Zeri stared directly into his eyes.

"Tell me, Uncle. How are you going to kill me when you can’t even get off the ground?"

Yuuta didn’t answer.

There was no strength left in his body to support the threat he had made. He had no plan, no weapon within reach, and the mysterious power that had nearly killed Zeri wasn’t answering him anymore.

Yet his crimson eyes never left the demon.

They remained cold and unwavering, glowing through the blood running down Yuuta’s face like the eyes of a predator that hadn’t accepted defeat.

Zeri stared into those crimson eyes, and the strange sensation returned once again. His fingers began trembling before he could stop them, and the memory of Yuuta’s blade approaching his neck flashed through his mind. He could still remember that certainty, that inexplicable instinct screaming that if the sword had touched him, there would have been no regeneration afterward.

"This feeling again..." Zeri muttered, looking at his trembling hand with growing irritation. His golden eyes hardened as he turned them back toward Yuuta. "No. I’m done with this. I have to kill you."

The tentacles behind Zeri immediately spread apart before several of them shot toward Yuuta with terrifying force. They ripped through the air so violently that the cracked pavement beneath them scattered from the pressure alone. Yuuta could see them coming, but his body remained completely useless. There was no strength left in his arms to defend himself and no feeling in his legs that would allow him to dodge.

Still, Yuuta didn’t blink.

His crimson eyes remained fixed on Zeri even as the tentacles rapidly closed the distance. If this was really the end, there was nothing he could do about it anymore.

Yet just before the tentacles could reach him, something strange happened.

Zeri’s eyes suddenly shifted toward the side.

Without warning, the tentacles heading toward Yuuta immediately changed direction and snapped backward. Several wrapped around Zeri’s body while the others crossed in front of him, forming a thick defensive shield.

Yuuta’s eyes widened.

What...?

He hadn’t even sensed an attack.

Then he saw it.

A small mass of ice streaked across the ruined street and slammed directly into Zeri’s defensive tentacles.

BOOM!

Ice shattered outward on impact, scattering frozen fragments across the pavement. The attack wasn’t particularly large, especially compared to the powers Yuuta had witnessed throughout the night, but the force behind it was enough to make Zeri’s tentacles recoil.

For a moment, Yuuta could only stare.

A small damaged area had appeared on one of the tentacles. The ice hadn’t pierced completely through the thick flesh, but it had punched a shallow hole into its surface and torn away a small portion of the muscle.

Zeri slowly stared at the damage.

Someone had actually hurt him.

Again.

The tentacles gradually unfolded from around his body, revealing his expression as he turned toward the direction from which the attack had come.

Yuuta did the same.

Ice...?

For the first time since being thrown onto the road, something resembling hope entered his eyes.

"Erza...?"

Ice magic.

For a single second, Yuuta genuinely believed his wife had arrived. Perhaps Erza had finally finished her own battle and found them. Or maybe another Agency fighter capable of using ice had reached the battlefield. Either possibility meant the same thing to Yuuta.

Someone had come to save them.

But when he finally found the source of the attack, his expression went completely blank.

It wasn’t Erza.

"Elena...?"

His voice trembled as the name escaped his mouth.

Elena was standing several meters away, exactly where Zeri’s earlier attack had thrown her. Dust covered her clothes and face, but Yuuta couldn’t see any serious injury on her. What shocked him far more was the sight of his daughter standing with both hands raised awkwardly in front of herself.

Her little fingers were spread apart, and her arms were visibly trembling from the effort. She looked as though she were desperately trying to remember how she was supposed to move her hands, concentrating so hard that her entire face had tightened.

A faint coldness lingered around them.

Yuuta stared at her in complete disbelief.

Elena... used magic?

He had never seen it before.

Not once.

In all the time he had spent with his daughter, Yuuta had never watched Elena properly cast a spell. He had never seen her raise her hands and deliberately attack something with magic, much less produce enough power to actually damage a High Demon like Zeri.

Under any other circumstances, Yuuta knew exactly how he would have reacted.

He would have forgotten everything else, rushed over to Elena, picked her up and probably embarrassed her with how proud he was. He would have demanded to know when she learned it, how she did it, and why she had never shown him before.

But this wasn’t a peaceful afternoon at home.

Zeri was standing between them.

Before Yuuta could even process what his daughter had just done, a quiet laugh came from the High Demon.

"Heh..."

Yuuta’s attention immediately snapped back toward him.

Zeri was still examining the small injury on his tentacle. His regeneration was already beginning to repair the damaged flesh, yet his expression had become noticeably colder.

"So even Uncle’s daughter can use some strange power that can hurt me."

The way he said it made Yuuta’s stomach tighten.

There was none of Zeri’s earlier childish excitement in his voice. He didn’t sound entertained by discovering something new anymore. After everything that had happened, even his curiosity had begun to feel ruthless.

"Elena, run..." Yuuta whispered, immediately trying to force himself up again. His palm pressed against the road, his entire arm shaking as he desperately tried to lift his body. "Elena... don’t stay there. Run."

His body collapsed again.

Elena heard him.

She was still afraid. Yuuta could see it clearly now that he was looking at her properly. Her hands were trembling, her breathing was uneven, and the fear in her eyes hadn’t disappeared simply because she had managed to use magic.

But Elena didn’t run.

She kept both hands raised toward Zeri, trying as hard as she could to hold them steady.

"Elena won’t let you hurt Papa."

Zeri slowly turned toward her.

Yuuta’s heart sank.

"Elena..."

Zeri’s golden eyes settled completely on the little girl. The damaged tentacle behind him finished regenerating while the others slowly shifted away from Yuuta and began moving behind his back.

Elena noticed them.

Her body trembled harder.

Yet she still didn’t step backward.

She remained where she was, hands raised and frightened eyes fixed on the High Demon standing before her.

Zeri stared at her.

And then....

To Be Continued...