"This place… When I was little, I used to run up here whenever I felt sad and sit here alone, staring into space."
After hearing Elysia's words, Erza fell silent for a while.
She looked at the sun slowly disappearing in the distance and said, "But ever since my brother appeared, he would always bring Natsu, Gray, and that whole noisy bunch with him. They'd annoy me so much I'd end up going back to the guild."
Elysia nodded, brushed off her skirt, and sat down.
After hesitating for a moment, Erza sat beside her too.
The sky gradually darkened.
The two of them sat shoulder to shoulder, sharing things they normally would never say out loud.
If one day you sat beside your mother when she was young, what would you be most curious about? What would you want to ask her?
There might have been many things Elysia wanted to know, but in the end, she did not ask anything.
Because she had already heard Erza talk countless times about her spirited, awkward youth.
Those days were still one of the most precious treasures in Erza's life.
And now, after walking through this world of the past herself, Elysia more or less understood where that treasure had come from.
"Father always says I rely too much on my bloodline and inherited powers, and that I don't know how to innovate. Compared to me, he even thinks more highly of Galena."
"I couldn't accept that, so I modified The Knight Requip into Dragon Knight Requip. I even wanted to use the divine power of the God of Illusion and Reality as an enchantment to create a real divine armor…"
Erza quietly listened as Elysia kept talking, complaining nonstop while pouring out the wishes she usually kept in her heart, as if she wanted to tell Erza every thought she had ever had.
Erza simply looked at her, her gaze as gentle as water.
A long time passed like that.
By then, the bright moonlight had spread across the entire city, softly draping mother and daughter in a beautiful silver glow.
Elysia seemed to have talked herself tired.
She leaned her head against Erza's shoulder and looked at her body, which had already begun turning into light and fading away.
With a helpless smile, she said, "Looks like… I couldn't fool you this time."
"You don't need to worry about the things you're worried about. Everything is already arranged in the best possible way… Mom."
Erza tightened her arm around Elysia's shoulders, a smile resting on her lips, until the warmth beneath her palm gradually faded.
Watching the particles of light drift toward the sky and slowly disappear from this time and space, Erza raised her head, sat on the ground with her knees hugged to her chest, and laughed softly.
"How could I possibly fail to recognize my own daughter…? I'll look forward to seeing you again in the future... Elysia."
....
Inside the guild, the crowd that had been fighting in a drunken mess had already exhausted themselves and fallen asleep.
Everyone lay sprawled across the floor in terrible sleeping positions.
Naciel carefully nudged Lucy's head closer into Natsu's arms, then gently covered the two of them with a blanket.
Looking at the sleeping pair, she placed her hands on her hips and smiled in satisfaction.
"Is it time to go?" Levy asked, reluctant to let go as she held Galena's hand.
Galena said helplessly, "Yeah. The Eclipse Magic Power will disperse with the new night, so we should be going back too."
Gajeel patted Garell on the head and said stiffly, "If you want to be the older brother, then make yourself strong enough for it!"
Garell nodded hard.
Grinju could not help looking toward Gray, who had been silent the whole time.
Gray opened his mouth, but in the end, all he managed to squeeze out was, "Be careful on your way back."
Even so, Grinju smiled with complete satisfaction.
Compared to them, Ankh and Anmi's farewell on the other side was far more intense.
"Bye-bye, Dad! Work hard, okay?! Try to make me the eldest son next time! I wanna bully Elysia every single day!"
Anmi cried with snot and tears running down his face, but every word out of his mouth was complete nonsense.
"Get the hell out of here!"
Ankh angrily kicked him, scattering Anmi's already translucent, light-formed body on the spot.
The people watching exchanged awkward looks.
Well… these children would be born in just a few years anyway, so there was no need to make it too emotional.
The youths began to disappear.
Before leaving, Galena suddenly remembered something and hurriedly said, "Time might correct this part of history, so some people may forget us. That's natural, so don't worry!"
"We'll see you again in the future!"
Aside from the sleeping, adorably dumb NaLu couple, everyone else waved goodbye with reluctant expressions.
Amid the chorus of farewells, the youths' figures gradually vanished.
It was like a noisy group of troublesome children had come over to visit a lively household, only to scatter back to their own homes once night fell.
They had certainly been annoying while they were here, but the loneliness left behind afterward was the feeling Ankh hated most.
Fortunately… he still had everyone in the guild with him.
"Wait… who were we saying goodbye to just now?" Gajeel asked in confusion as he lowered his hand.
Levy also looked bewildered. "And it feels like we were having a party in the guild, but what was it for again…?"
Ankh froze for a second, then turned to look at Gray and Mirajane.
Seeing that both of them looked equally confused, he was stunned on the spot.
That fast?
But why did he feel completely unaffected?
While Ankh was still puzzled, a rapid series of footsteps suddenly sounded from the second floor.
He turned around, only to see Erza charging straight into his arms like a little bull, knocking him back a step.
"What's wrong?"
Seeing Erza looking so emotional, Ankh instinctively stroked her hair and asked.
"Ankh!"
"Hm?"
Ankh answered instinctively, then suddenly realized that aside from the last time Erza had gotten drunk, this seemed to be the first time in years that she had not called him Brother!
Then he lowered his head and saw Erza looking up at him with sparkling, impatient eyes.
"Let's have a child! I want to meet Elysia as soon as possible!"
"HUUHHH?!"
Ankh's first reaction was shock.
His second was confusion.
Erza had not lost her memories of the future children, just like him.
And right after Erza said something so explosive in such an innocent tone, Mirajane angrily dragged her to the side.
The two of them immediately started bickering again, just like they used to.
...
The night went on for a long time.
Everyone else, who had no idea what had really happened, eventually stopped trying to figure out why they had held a party in the first place.
After all, this guild had always been the kind of place where strange things happened anytime, anywhere.
Once everyone had gone their separate ways, Ankh sat alone and thought carefully about the matter of the memories from the future.
The facts seemed to prove that because the Eclipse Gate was something created by Zeref with the aid of the gods, the lingering effects of its residual Magic Power did not work on those who possessed divine power.
Just like Ophiuchus and the Celestial Spirit King, who remembered the children clearly, Erza seemed to have been unaffected because she now carried divine power as well.
Late at night, listening to the faint snores of the crazy girl and the little delinquent who had fallen asleep after making a racket next door, Ankh sat at his desk and looked at the portraits of Anmi and Elysia he had drawn with magic.
A gentle, loving smile appeared on his face.
At least he could make a keepsake ahead of time.
'See you again in the future.'
And this time, three more crystals on the bracelet of gods around his wrist had lit up.
The divine power of space delivered by his son, the divine power of combat and technique delivered by his daughter, and Ophiuchus's divine power of plague and disease.
Three gold pulls from a single mission!
He was getting closer and closer to collecting all the divine powers.
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