The sky cracked.
The Dream Lich loomed over the Heartspire like a nightmare made real—horned, towering, its voice a low drone echoing in every mind.
"You are not heroes. You are just... haunted."
Dozens of Dreambeasts surged from the ground—spider-limbed horrors, stitched from faces and memories, each one a fragment of broken thought. The air reeked of rust and roses.
But Erza's squad didn't falter.
"Form up!" Erza shouted, stepping forward, flames rising from his skin. "We end this here."
The Leo constellation pulsed behind him like a second sun, his mythic flare radiating courage into the collapsing dream.
Auren pulled twin sabers from his back, their edges sparking with astral current. "I'll carve through the left flank."
Seris raised her Virgo shield, eyes calm. "I'll hold the center. Erza, go for the Lich."
Korr gave a grim nod and slammed his fists together—his aura cracking the pavement. "No beast leaves alive."
Lysra vanished in a flicker of light, reappearing on a rooftop, her daggers ready. "Let's burn their dreams to ash."
And then they moved—like a single unit honed through pain and purpose.
✦ Squad Versus the Dreambeasts
Seris held the front line, her Virgo crest blazing. She moved like a star-dancer, shield shimmering with resonance. Every time a Dreambeast lunged, she met it with absolute force—shattering claws and snapping memories.
But they whispered to her between strikes:
"You weren't strong enough to save them… The convent burned because of you…"
Seris gritted her teeth and pushed harder. "I live because they did. And I will not waste it."
Auren cut through the horde with deadly arcs, his sabers slicing through shadowflesh. The Dreambeasts that neared him exploded in arcs of blue lightning.
One beast—shaped like his dead brother—lunged at him, eyes pleading.
Auren hesitated.
But only for a second.
"You were real," he said softly. "But this is not."
He severed it with a clean strike.
Korr was a juggernaut. Dreambeasts clung to him, tore at him, but his skin shimmered with titan-forged durability. With each punch, reality itself shook.
Lysra danced among shadows, cutting down creatures with surgical precision. Her daggers shimmered with inverted starlight.
"You could've saved her. You let her drown…"
The words clawed at her mind.
But Lysra only smiled grimly. "Maybe. But not today."
✦ Erza vs The Dream Lich
Above them all, Erza clashed with the Dream Lich.
Fire clashed with thought. Reality bent.
The Lich sent out tendrils of pure memory—constructs shaped like Erza's worst failures. His mother. His soldiers. His kingdom.
Each one begged for him to stop.
But Erza roared.
His Solar Roar burst through the illusions—consuming the constructs in golden flame.
"You feed on weakness," he growled, his aura rising higher. "But I've learned something…"
The Lich's face split open like a book, thousands of voices screaming at once. "What… is that?"
"That my scars aren't chains," Erza said, his hair now flaring like sunfire. "They're fuel."
His Leo flame surged—brighter, hotter. Then—
It changed.
The aura around him shifted hue—from golden to a deep, radiant white-gold. His body lifted off the ground as a roaring astral lion enveloped him, this time not just a projection—but a full Mythic Avatar.
Erza had entered Leo Transcendence.
The Dream Lich reeled.
"You—impossible—Leo's True Form is sealed!"
Erza's voice boomed with solar echo.
"Then maybe I'm here to break the seal."
He flew forward, punching through tendrils, bursting through fear. The Lich screamed as its form fractured, its head splitting like porcelain.
But it wasn't enough.
The Lich's core—a pulsing dream heart—rose from its chest and launched skyward, channeling nightmare essence into the Heartspire, preparing a final attack.
A psychic storm formed overhead.
Erza's squad regrouped below, breathless but unbroken.
"Final phase," Auren said, grinning.
Seris raised her shield. "Together."
Korr nodded. "No mercy."
Erza floated above them all, flame-wreathed, his eyes glowing.
"This ends now."
✦ The Final Blow
The Heartspire fired a beam of dreamlight—thick with despair, twisted with guilt.
Erza flew straight through it.
His aura didn't burn this time—it shined. Pure, radiant. It cut through fear like dawn cuts through darkness.
He punched through the Lich's heart with a roaring strike, his solar lion roaring alongside him. The explosion tore across the dream, unraveling the false city in waves of light.
The Cancer Gate cracked.
And then—
It shattered.
The dream was over.
✦ Silence After Fire
The squad stood in the real Elarin again—sky clear, stars calm.
The city was in ruins. But it was real.
No more illusions.
Erza stood at the center, breathing heavily, his flames flickering low.
His friends gathered around him.
"You alright?" Lysra asked, kneeling beside him.
Erza nodded. "I saw him. The one behind all this. Noctharion. He's watching."
Auren looked up at the stars. "Then we'll make sure he sees us too."
Seris added, "Leo answered you."
Erza looked at his hands, still faintly glowing.
"No," he said. "Leo followed me."
End of Chapter 25