Raven didn't move. He didn't even lift his hands.
The sky above him was filled with falling green cannon balls, each one big as a house pillar, each one ready to explode the moment they hit the ground.
Dodging felt useless. Fighting back felt pointless.
His men were shouting, praying, some frozen in fear… but Raven's mind was far away, stuck on one single picture.
"Sir Raven… please come back safely."
The girl's voice echoed again, soft and warm, like a memory wrapped in sunlight.
She stood there in his mind wearing a simple white gown embroidered with small red flowers.
In her hands, she held a handkerchief with a smiling face stitched on it, and her name written below it.
"Erza….."
He tried to see her face again. He tried with everything inside him.
But every time he focused, her face blurred, like fog covering a mirror.
Her lips moved, her hair swayed in his thoughts, but her expression… it just wouldn't come.
It slipped away again and again.
