Yuuta's breath caught painfully in his chest.
"Erza…"
She stood before him like a dream that had forgotten it wasn't real—formed of violet light and pale moon-glow, her outline shimmering softly, as if one careless breath might scatter her into nothing. She was close enough to see, close enough to ache for, yet impossibly distant.
Undeniably her.
Tears spilled freely down Yuuta's face. He didn't bother wiping them away. His hand lifted on instinct, fingers trembling as he reached toward her, desperate to feel warmth, to prove she wasn't another cruel illusion.
His hand passed through light.
Erza smiled.
It was gentle. Broken. The kind of smile meant to comfort someone even while hiding unbearable pain.
"Yuuta," she said softly.
Her voice trembled, carrying sorrow that felt too heavy for words.
"If you're seeing me like this… then it means I'm no longer with you." She swallowed, the glow around her flickering faintly. "It means I lost the only happy life I was ever given. Again."
Yuuta's knees nearly gave out.
Erza watched him with eyes filled with regret and longing, as if she could see every step he had taken to reach this moment.
"It must hurt," she continued quietly. "You must have searched everywhere. Called out my name. Questioned everything." Her gaze dropped for a moment, then lifted back to him. "And in the end… you found this letter."
She exhaled slowly, as though steadying herself.
"I know you don't understand why I left," Erza said again. "I know you don't know the reason. In fact…" Her voice grew softer, almost fragile. "You don't yet know what is truly happening."
The light surrounding her pulsed faintly, steady and slow, like the echo of a living heartbeat.
Yuuta opened his mouth, desperate to answer, to tell her he understood—no, that he would understand, if she would just explain.
But before a single word could escape him, Erza laughed quietly.
It was a small sound, familiar, painfully warm.
"I know, my idiot," she said with a gentle giggle. "You're trying to talk to me."
Her smile wavered, affection and sorrow twisting together.
"But this is only a one-way recording," she continued softly. "I can't hear you. I can only leave my words behind… like footprints in a place I can never return to."
Her gaze lowered, and the light around her dimmed slightly.
"It must hurt," Erza said. "Losing someone without warning. Having them disappear as if they were never real." Her fingers curled slowly at her side. "I know that pain, Yuuta. I felt it too… when you vanished from my world."
She lifted her eyes again, meeting his.
"You might think I'm punishing you," she said. "Or that this is some cruel prank." Her voice trembled. "But I think you already know the truth."
Her expression tightened.
"You've already lost pieces of me, haven't you?" she whispered. "Memories. Details. My voice… my face."
Tears welled in her eyes, bright and shimmering within the light.
"I'm sorry, Yuuta," Erza said, her voice breaking. "I didn't have a choice."
She raised her hand, pressing it lightly to her chest.
"We are dragons," she continued. "We are born for war, not for love. Even my fate… it would not allow me to remain by your side."
Her eyes softened, filled with a love so deep it hurt Yuuta just to look at her.
"No matter how much I wanted to stay," Erza said quietly, "I tried everything to remain by your side. I fought fate itself, searched for every path that would let me choose you."
Her lips trembled as she continued.
"But I failed. In the end, there was only one decision left to me." She drew in a slow breath. "So I chose to leave you… for good."
The words settled heavily between them.
"I know it sounds cruel," Erza went on, her voice steady but fragile beneath the surface, "but Yuuta, there is something I must do in my kingdom." Her gaze sharpened, carrying the weight of a crown invisible yet undeniable. "War is coming. Countless lives are already standing on the edge of destruction."
She straightened slightly, queen before wife.
"As their ruler, I cannot turn away," she said. "I must stand at the front. Just like you always told me— a queen exists to protect her people, even if it costs her everything."
Yuuta's hands clenched.
"That is why I left," Erza continued. "And that is why… I entrusted Elena to you."
His breath caught at the sound of their daughter's name.
"I know you are confused," Erza said softly, as if she could sense his turmoil even through the recording. "You're wondering why I would leave her behind. Why I would choose to be separated from my own child."
Her expression gentled.
"Elena is too pure," she whispered. "Her heart is not meant to witness bloodshed or war. She deserves laughter, school days, scraped knees, and innocent dreams. She deserves a childhood untouched by the weight of a throne."
She smiled faintly.
"That is why I gave her to you," Erza said. "So you could raise her. So she could live as a normal child. So she could be happy."
The light around her flickered.
"I sealed her dragon form," she admitted. "As long as you live, she will remain human. She will grow, learn, and love in your world."
Her eyes shimmered with tears.
"And when your time in this world ends," Erza said quietly, "Elena will return to my side."
She lowered her gaze.
"Until then, make memories with her," she pleaded softly. "Fill her life with warmth, kindness, and love. So that when she comes back to me… she can tell me everything."
Her smile returned, fragile yet sincere.
"So that I, too, can know what happiness looked like… through her eyes."
Her gaze softened further.
"And don't worry about her future," Erza said. "I have prepared everything. I earned enough for you to raise Elena without suffering. You will never lack what you need."
She hesitated.
The silence stretched, heavy and fragile.
"And I know what you're thinking," Erza said at last. "How can Elena grow up without a mother's love?"
Her eyes lowered, shadows flickering beneath them.
"I planned for that too."
She lifted her head and met Yuuta's gaze directly. For the first time since the projection appeared, there was no distance in her eyes—only resolve, and something painfully close to fear.
"I made Fiona stay with you."
The words landed quietly, yet they struck harder than any spell.
Erza did not look away.
"Your old crush. The one you loved before me. I made her agree—to become your wife, to stand beside you, and to raise Elena as her own."
The violet-white light surrounding her flickered, thinning at the edges, as if time itself was beginning to peel her apart. Yuuta's hands trembled, but he could not move.
"I know what you're thinking."
Her voice softened.
"You're wondering how she agreed. When it happened."
A faint, sad smile touched her lips.
"I prepared this long ago. When Grandpa crossed into this world. When you thought you were simply asking Fiona out on a date." Her eyes lowered. "That was the moment she stepped into my script."
Yuuta's chest tightened until it hurt to breathe.
"This was the only way," Erza continued. "The only way I could protect you and Elena."
The light dimmed further, its edges breaking into motes.
"Even if it meant losing you."
"No."
The word tore itself from Yuuta's throat.
"Why did you do this?" he shouted. "Why did you decide everything for me?"
Understanding crashed down on him all at once—why Fiona had called herself his fiancée, why the world had rewritten itself so perfectly, so mercilessly.
It was all a spell.
All of it.
But Erza did not answer.
The hologram was never meant to.
Her image remained steady, her voice calm and unchanging—merciless in its pre-recorded certainty, as though no amount of pain on Yuuta's face could alter what had already been decided. The violet-and-white light surrounding her pulsed faintly, responding to words that had been carved into destiny long before this moment.
"Don't you dare die too soon, you idiot mortal."
"I know what you're thinking—getting yourself hit by a truck and sneaking into my world like some ridiculous anime fantasy.
All that nonsense you told me… it's meaningless.
So don't you dare die.
Live—for Elena.
Live long enough so that one day, she can explain her entire life to me."
The words were gentle, almost affectionate, and that softness hurt more than cruelty ever could. There was love in her voice, unmistakable and raw, wrapped tightly around a farewell she had never been allowed to speak in person.
"And don't worry about me. Once this Zani Script activated, my fate was already sealed."
The light around her trembled violently, rippling as if the spell itself were straining under an unbearable cost. The air felt heavy, charged with something ancient and irreversible, as though the room had become a witness to a crime against the natural order.
"It consumes life force," Erza continued, her voice steady despite the sorrow beneath it. "Just like it took my mother's."
For a brief moment, her gaze drifted away from Yuuta, eyes unfocused, lost in memories that belonged to another world and another era. When she spoke again, her voice carried the weight of understanding earned far too late.
"Back then, I never understood why my mother would create spells for such lowly beings. I couldn't comprehend why she would sacrifice herself for them. I thought it was weakness."
Her eyes returned to Yuuta, and something inside them softened completely.
"But now I understand."
A faint, fragile smile touched her lips, trembling as if it might break apart at any second.
"I could create hundreds—no, thousands—of spells," she said quietly, "if it meant seeing you happy, Yuuta."
The light flickered again, dimming slightly at the edges.
"I may live for hundreds of years," Erza said, her voice lowering, "but I will never truly live again. This spell cost me everything I was."
Her eyes shimmered, unshed tears suspended like stars trapped behind glass, forbidden from falling even now.
Then, as if struck by a sudden and almost absurd realization, she let out a small, breathless laugh and pressed her palm lightly to her forehead.
"Oh my… I even forgot to be baptized."
She looked at him then—truly looked at him—with an intensity that made Yuuta's chest ache, as though she were carving his face into her soul for the last time.
"Yuuta," she said softly, "I'm afraid your God won't let me stand beside you in heaven Since i killed many life's."
Her lips quivered, and for a moment she seemed unbearably human, stripped of crowns, power, and fate.
Then she smiled again, that familiar smile that had always walked the line between teasing and tenderness.
"So before you die," Erza said gently, her tone almost playful despite the sorrow woven through it, "kill something."
Yuuta's body froze, his mind refusing to process what he had just heard.
"Anything," she added calmly. "Even an animal."
Her smile wavered, trembling as the truth behind those words surfaced.
"So I can find you in hell," she whispered, "and we can stay together there."
The light fractured violently, shards of violet and moon-white brilliance scattering through the room as the spell began to collapse under its own weight.
"And if we're reborn," Erza said, her voice thinning, growing distant, "I'll be human next time."
Her form began to dissolve, edges blurring as though reality itself were erasing her.
"I really love you, my mortal," she said softly. "And I really love that nickname you gave me… Lizard Queen."
Her presence faded further, becoming translucent, fleeting.
"I wish I could have stayed with you forever," she whispered. "As Erza Konuari."
Her smile was gentle. Final. Absolute.
"Farewell, my love. Let's meet again in our next life… as humans," Erza said softly, her smile breaking at the edges. "My idiot mortal husband."
The final remnants of violet light thinned into nothingness, dissolving like mist under the morning sun. Her presence vanished completely, leaving behind only cold air and silence where she had stood moments ago.
"Yuuta Konuari"
The room fell unnaturally quiet.
No breath. No magic. No warmth.
Yuuta stood frozen, his hands still outstretched, as if his body refused to accept what his eyes already knew. The bedroom felt hollow, stripped of meaning, as though something fundamental had been carved out of reality itself.
Then the letter stirred.
It lifted slowly from the bedside table, rising into the air as if caught by an invisible tide. Yuuta felt it immediately—a pressure deep within his chest, heavy and suffocating. The letter was no longer dormant. This was the final spell.
Not destruction.
Erasure.
Rewriting.
A primal fear clawed its way up his throat as he realized what was about to happen. This was the closing act of Erza's script—the moment where the world itself would forget her ever existed.
"No—!" Yuuta screamed, his voice cracking as panic overwhelmed him. "Allen! Come forth—now!"
The shadows beneath his feet twisted violently, folding inward before stretching upward like living ink. From within them, Allen emerged, his form snapping into place with unnatural precision.
"Yes, my master," Allen said automatically.
Then he paused.
His brows furrowed as he looked down at the floor, then back at Yuuta, confusion flickering across his face. "Wait… how did I come from your shadow?"
Yuuta didn't answer. There was no time.
"Allen," Yuuta said urgently, grabbing him by the collar, his eyes wild and desperate. "Stop me from marrying Fiona. At all costs. No matter what happens. Promise me."
Allen hesitated, his mind clearly struggling to process the command. Something about it felt wrong to him—illogical, disconnected from the reality he knew—but the weight of Yuuta's authority pressed down on him regardless.
"…As you command, my master," Allen said at last, bowing his head.
The letter flared.
A massive wave of light erupted outward, filling the room completely. It wasn't violent. It didn't burn or shatter or destroy.
It simply erased.
The light swept through the house, through the city, through every memory, every record, every trace tied to Erza Konuari. Minds emptied quietly, seamlessly, as though she had never been there at all.
Yuuta felt it happen.
The pain faded first.
Then the memories followed.
Her voice blurred. Her face softened into nothing. Even the ache of loss dissolved, replaced by a calm emptiness that felt disturbingly natural.
And just like that—
Yuuta forgot her.
Erza was gone.
Forever.
The light vanished, leaving the world intact, rewritten, and ignorant of what it had lost.
---
To Be Continued
End of Foundation Arc