Capítulo 27: A Shoulder To Cry On
(Bonus Chapter for the 400 powerstones)
My eyes slowly opened, and I awakened to the 360 vision my armor gave me. I looked down at the Dragon's neck, and there I saw Dragon City, a large city, bigger than the average city, thanks to me enlarging Nirvana.
My size slowly shrank, returning to my human form, while I got up, walking towards where I sensed Levi, sitting before a grave. It looked like I had been asleep for a long time, as they had learned to take on a human form.
"You created her grave?" I asked lightly, sitting next to Levi who was looking at Elsa's grave. He was stunned by my sudden arrival, but he smiled sadly while nodding.
"She bought time for me to escape, we had to force Erza to escape… I should have stayed." Levi said to which I placed a palm on his shoulders.
"Don't blame yourself for all of this, don't let the past swallow you up… for everyone I failed, I will try and make it up to you all," I said lightly, looking at Elsa, remembering how she was so embarrassing to be around when she was drunk, her nickname for me… although she couldn't call me that anymore.
"You know… Elsa was my first friend." I said with a gentle smile while rubbing the tombstone, Levi sighed at my words before he went on to speak, letting everything out. Everything he would miss about her, and his regrets. I sat there, being his shoulders to cry on, and his ear to listen to it all.
"You all deserved better than this, when we are out, let's drink," I said lightly, to which Levi began crying while nodding his head.
"She would love that." He said while I walked off, entering the city where I entered the palace belonging to the king… which was me.
There I walked to a garden, and using my flames, I transmuted the ground. Slowly a statue of Irene appeared, standing tall while looking toward the throne on the head of the dragon. She stood on a tombstone which had her name, and the name of the child we had planned.
"Erza?" Erza who had regained her human form, although not her legs asked looking at the name of the child if it was a girl. If it was a boy, it was Ryujin Jr…. I was bad at names.
"She looked up to you… she said if it was a girl, she wanted her to grow up to be as strong as you," I said with a gentle smile while looking at her. This shocked Erza, who looked at the statue for some time.
"O-oh…" Erza removed some tears, not expecting Irene to look so highly upon her. Most of the time, they were at each other neck. But the fight was normally over Irene worrying for Erza, and Erza getting pissed that Irene was babying her when Erza raised her.
The air went quiet for some time before she changed the subject, joking at my naming sense, which made me laugh weakly.
"Yeah, she was fully against the name, so I was thinking of naming him after Natsu, but I never told her that, liking her reaction every time I said Ryujin Jr," I said with a gentle smile, to which she laughed at the image.
"I should have at least collected her bones, I should have given them a place to rest," I said lightly, sighing at the past.
"Irene never cared for her body, her whole clothing was simply to maximize her movement during battle… I will admit, she got it off me. But I had to cover up thanks to my husband." Erza said with a smile, to which I smiled awkwardly as something similar happened with Irene. But I didn't need to say anything, as she noticed how I reacted to those who tried to get lucky and see something.
"It all went by so fast. One moment they were there, end the next day they were just gone." I said holding back some tears that wanted to show themselves. I took a breath to calm myself down, before smiling.
"Sorry, I'm venting," I said to which Erza shook her head.
"I'm your knight, my ears are all yours," she said causing me to nod gratefully. She looked at me with a smile, holding her palm out.
"You're awake, so let's live before you return to your slumber." She said with a smile, to which I nodded lightly while walking off to explore the city. There were many things to see, the tree dragons had created enough trees which were turned into paper, allowing books to be created. So there was a library which had many stories they could read.
Some dragons were into acting, so many dragons came to their shows to see the dragon put on a play.
As I looked at how peaceful the place was, the image of Dragnof flashed across my eyes. Thanks to gaining Nirvana, I understood I couldn't just erase all of the evil from this world, I couldn't create a world of only light. It would create a paradox.
I can't just erase death from this world, life would overflow the world. For this concept, a world without darkness would not last long, for everything the light hits, it creates a shadow. Yin and Yang, what is heaven without hell?
What is hope without despair? What is a body without a soul?
I sighed softly, but I was brought back to reality by Erza who held my hand seeing my lost look, along with my annoyance and frustration. I looked at her, and for a moment I saw Irene.
"What are you thinking? There is a council of dragons if you need outside thoughts." Erza said with a frown, I thought for a moment before nodding
"I need more thoughts on this matter," I said lightly to which she nodded. I followed her to see what the city had turned into, there was even a nest of dragon eggs, I had allowed them to have offspring, and I could house them all inside me. They all knew this would only make me stronger.
"This is the stone of memories, it holds the loved ones of all who have passed and major figures who helped us reach this point," Erza said while looking at the stones which were filled with names. I looked at the list of names, remembering the countless numbers of both human and dragon names.
I looked at all of this, before remembering that I had the chance to kill Acnologia yet I let him live. I closed my eyes for some time, lost in my thoughts for some time before I let out a deep breath.
"Lastly is the garden of hope." She said while leading me to a beautiful garden. Although the flowers were fake, they looked extremely realistic, this place looked like something out of heaven.
"We called this the immortal garden since it shall forever remain pure and clean no matter how many years passed. It's a signal for our hopes for peace." She said with a gentle smile. I looked at all of this for some time, before sitting down on a stone and taking in all of this.
"Don't try and take on all of this by yourself, I'm your knight, allow me to support you," Erza said while holding her palm out toward me. I looked at that arm with a faint smile, before taking it.
"Thank you," I said with a gentle smile, to which she laughed while putting her arm over my shoulders. I was currently smaller than her.
"Sure short stuff," She said making my eye twitch, was this how a knight treats her king? Erza seeing my speechless look grinned.
"That's it, loosen up. You are not alone in any of this, we are all on this together. We are all a team and united at heart." She said with a smile, to which I paused for a moment before sighing in defeat.
"I will try but don't get your hopes up," I said to which she nodded with a gentle smile. So, we went to hang out with the dragons, I also ate some flames from the fire dragons, allowing me to fill up my stomach.
In the end, as I got ready to head back to my rest, I sat on top of a building, looking down upon the city.
"You know I could erase your injuries? You need not have swords for limbs." I said lightly, to which Erza looked at her sword legs for a moment before shrugging.
"And weaken me by more than half? I'm good." She said with a shrug, to which I sighed lightly. I got up to return to my sleep, but she stopped me by pulling my shirt. I knew she was having a hard time trying to be human and show that she cared, even while human she had a hard time showing that she cared.
"Take care of yourself too... I was never good at this emotional stuff... but thank you. Even while still not over your pain, you took the time to help us get over our pain." She said lightly, leaving me quiet for some time.
"And don't say it's your duty as king. You are... but I care for your mental health as well, don't ignore your pain. You're strong, but even the strongest man needs a shoulder to cry on." Erza said to which I looked at the sky, not turning back towards her.
"Thank you... I mean it, But don't forget your mental state... you went through hell." I said while turning back towards her. I saw how she was tortured, the illusions where she relived her worst nightmares over and over, the items used to inflict pain upon her. She endured a lot, enough that her body shook once I brought the topic up.
I took her in and hugged her. They had all endured so much. If I had to relive my worst nightmares, it wouldn't take me more than a month to snap, she lasted a year.
Erza tried to muster the strength to break free from my hug, but my warmth and the safety of the hug made her just cry into my shoulders. I said nothing, letting her get it all out of her system... which took 5 minutes.
"T-thank you... this moment is between just the two of us... right?" Erza asked her face turning red in embarrassment seeing my wet shirt. I smiled lightly, as I didn't know she could blush.
"Don't worry, it's my pleasure to be your shoulder to cry on," I said with a smile, to which Erza helplessly nodded while watching me head off to sleep...
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