“Hurry up and heal me, Ama! There’s no time!” Lagron said urgently as he sat on his bed being surrounded by a green light.

“Be patient! It’ll take me time to heal you completely with the huge difference in our energy levels,” replied Amaranda telepathically while healing her lover.

He clicked his tongue irritably and said, “I can’t be patient when the others are getting beaten while I sit here and get healed like it’s some kind of vacation! Do it quickly, Ama!”

After hearing his voice inside her head, Amaranda quickly informed Wolfenstine and left to reach the Chand family. Once there, she hurried up the stairs and entered the first bedroom to see her life sitting upright on the bed and looking most annoyed. He complained about her being late, to which she apologised and begun to heal him.

She sighed at his urgency and said telepathically, “Lagron, I know how you feel, but healing you soon after you wake up isn’t an easy task. Do you have any idea just how much energy you depleted that I have to restore?”

“Tell that to the enemy!” He insisted angrily. “You saw how deadly those attacks were! Whoever it was, they launched two mega sized energy balls at us and promptly caused them to explode, causing such an explosion. It was so massive that we all could’ve died in the nearby vicinity! Wiped out… if it weren’t for him.”

He paused at the mention of the person that saved them and inquired, “How is he anyway?”

“Sleeping,” she replied simply.

Her reply made him wear a look of frustration on his face and clench his fists to express his frustration. At that moment, three ladies entered the room and they were Venezuela, Erza and Emilia with concerned looks on their faces.

“Lagron!” Emilia said looking happy at seeing him sitting upright. “I’m glad to see you’re up. Are you okay?”

“I would be if she quickens her healing,” he replied and gestured towards his lover, who sighed in exasperation.

“Mariana just told us that you woke up so we came to check on you,” explained Venezuela as she and the other two sat down on chairs in the room, “and judging by your remarks, you seem perfectly fine as you are.”

“You think?” He replied in an exasperated manner.

The three women laughed before Erza asked, “Lagron, I think you seem to be aware of what’s been going on?”

“Do I need to be aware, especially after witnessing and surviving such an enormous attack?!” He exclaimed, to which Erza nodded in understanding.

“But still, what happened in that light, Lagron?” Erza asked further, and the other two became curious, and Amaranda’s pointed ears shifted slightly as she too seemed to be keen on listening in.

For a moment, Lagron looked as if he was not happy about being asked such a question. However, before the others could stop him, he seemed to relent and begun recounting everything that had occurred at that time.

***

The two large balls of destruction suddenly exploded and created an explosion so powerful that the entire area within the vicinity would be wiped out. This excluded the Floria Kingdom’s capital but included everyone taking refuse inside the Chand household as well as the two warriors fighting against the attack.

“No way!” Lagron shouted, widening his eyes in horror as the devastating explosion swept towards them.

He could not believe that such an attack was upon them, and they were caught off-guard and unable to defend against it. This made him suddenly experience a flash of all the things he experienced throughout his life and the regrets hit him like a wave a tsunami.

“Dammit!” He said, realising his own helplessness in the situation sand collapsed to the ground and punched the ground hard while shouting, “Not like this!”

To his surprise, his rival shouted in response to his with a, “Exactly!”

Lagron turned his head and witnessed his rival clap his hands together and begin to surge with the last remnants of his energy. He was amazed by how far his rival was pushing himself forward to bring out everything he had in order to protect them all from the explosion.

Lakshman then turned to his rival and shouted, “You’re right, Lagron! We’re not dying today! Not like this!”

Then, with a grin on his face, he turned back to face the incoming explosive wave and shouted, “Outer Spirit!”

In an instant, Lagron sensed that his rival’s body had become limp and realised immediately that he had gone into his spirit mode. As such, he quickly reacted by activating his own technique that allowed him to see astral forms conjured due to a magic’s effect. This was something he learnt from the last time he was attacked by this spell in their first battle after meeting in the Dragon World.

“Astral Sight!”

In an instant, his vision shifted and became seemingly darker to allow him to see astral forms of anyone around him. There, he witnessed Lakshman in his astral form flying towards the incoming explosion and as he did, he heard him chant another spell.

“Astral Connect.”

He witnessed his rival’s astral form emanate a strange glow as he continued to charge towards the wave. Upon reaching it, he put out both of his hands and seemingly made contact with it, causing him to suddenly let out an incredible scream that horrified Lagron, who was watching several meters away.

Despite the excruciating pain he was taking, Lakshman seemed to push through the pain and managed to activate another spell.

“Maga Distrab!”

In an instant, Lagron felt an incredible amount of energy flow all around them and witnessed the wave from the explosion suddenly freeze before getting destroyed with the sound of breaking glass. This amazed Lagron and made him feel very angry at himself for standing there and doing nothing just like in the ancient times, allowing Asura at that time to sacrifice himself to save the world.

As the explosion vanished into thin air, he saw his rival’s astral form turn into a ball of light and quickly fly back before entered his body. In the next second, Lakshman’s body swayed as if he suddenly was not in control of his body and fell sideways.

“Lucky!” Lagron shouted, and he pushed himself to his feet to rush to catch his rival’s collapsing body.

However, he was very exhausted and the moment he rose to his feet and took another step, his legs gave way and he fell flat on his face on the grass. While lying there, he managed to shift his focus and saw his rival’s body hit the ground with a thud as well as the cries of his family and friends as they immediately rushed towards him since the barrier was gone now that its caster was unconscious.

“Damn…!” He muttered before he too lost focus and became unconscious where he lay just before witnessing Amaranda, Wolfenstine and Valerian hurrying over to him.

***

“That’s how Lucky managed to save us from that explosion,” he finished with a small sigh.

“Lucky…” said Venezuela and Emilia softly while Erza remained silent, but with a soft expression on her face like the others.

“Connecting his astral spirit with that wave is like throwing your body into lava while being unable to manipulate to save yourself. I can’t even begin to imagine how much pain he must’ve endured to cancel out the wave since there was the chance the wave might’ve had a counter cancelling spell on it,” said Amaranda telepathically in a quiet voice.

“So, destroying it from within, huh?” Lagron asked, and she nodded silently in agreement. He clicked his tongue and said, “Damn. Always taking risks and throwing his life away readily. He even did the same against that twisted thing.”

“Twisted thing?” Erza asked curiously. “What’s that?”

Emilia, however, seemed to know what he meant and asked, “Is it the Ancient Evil?”

“Pretty much,” he said, and they became silent.

A few seconds later, Emilia finally asked, “What happened back then, Lagron?”

He looked at her in surprise and asked, “You want to know how your husband died back then? Are you… sure?”

Lagron was hesitant to response since this involved the eventual death of their husband, Asura, in the ancient times. However, Emilia and the other two nodded their heads and gave him consent to speak. So, he deliberated about it for a moment before relenting and sighing in the process.

“No matter what we threw at it, that thing just got stronger and stronger. It was a create like no other, I tell you. I mean, that thing started out pretty weak, and I managed to destroy it several times but just when it looked like we won, it somehow reformed and fought back. It even seemed to manipulate blood as it attacked us with it and even managed to gain control some of our attackers as well. The worst was that it grew stronger and stronger the longer we fought with it and the other monsters also seemed to grow extremely strong and become very vicious. Realising that it was hopeless to continue fighting such a monster and we were losing our strength, Lucky… I mean, Asura of that time sacrificed himself to destroy it… but… it lived…!”

Lagron’s expression changed to that of great frustration as he remembered the horrifying experience and said, “The explosion was so massive that I got blown away and the entire continent we were fighting on was sunk to the ocean beneath. Yet, that monster survived and not only that! It even threatened that though it was badly wounded, it would go into sleep and return some unknown number of years later and at that time, no one would be able to stop it from carrying out its duty.”

“I… see…” said Emilia slowly and turned to look at Venezuela and Erza. Then she said, “It seems that its awakening is drawing nearer.”

“I’m afraid so,” said Venezuela gloomily. “We’ve already met its apparition so it’s only a matter of when it will truly resurface.”

“Yes,” said Erza with a sad look on her face.

There was a moment of silence in the room before Amaranda finally released her hands and the glowing light around Lagron disappeared as she sighed and said telepathically, “Alright, Lagron. You are fully healed.”

“Oh!” He exclaimed, surprised and feeling a new energy flowing through him.

He pushed away the sheets and got off the bed to stand firmly on his feet before experimenting with his body. First, he clenched his fists, next he swung his body, then did some quick push-ups and got back to his feet. Finally, he suddenly powered up inside the room that caused the wind to suddenly blow wildly and caused the windows to get smashed due to the power he was releasing.

“Watch it!” Amaranda snapped at him in annoyance.

“Oops. Sorry,” he apologised and powered down. Then he turned to her and said, “I feel great!”

“Good because I would’ve punched you if you weren’t!” She replied telepathically with a smug smile.

“Hey! It’s your fault that you’re slow at healing!” He retorted in annoyance. “It would’ve been much easier to use Restoration!”

“If you wanted to experience what it felt like to regain your lost energy naturally, but at 1000 times speed then I would’ve done exactly that. I’m sure you would’ve enjoyed the bonus pain that would’ve come with it,” she replied, to which he suddenly looked slightly worried. “Anyway, hurry up and go since you’ve been nonstop pressuring me about it till now.”

“Yes!” He said and nodded at her in agreement.

He walked around the bed and exited the room only to turn and meet Indira and Priya, who just arrived on the floor after climbing the stairs. They were most surprised to se him awake and full of energy so quickly.

“Y-You’re okay?” Priya reacted in surprise.

“Yes. Surprised?” He asked her back with a smug grin.

“No! You very well should be considering your status as the Dragon Titan!” She rebutted firmly.

He smirked when he saw her and her sister’s expression before walking past them and entering the next bedroom where Lakshman was at. As he entered, he saw Ondine, Sumara, Cantia, Tetra, Silvera, and Sonia all seated around his bed and looking worried for their husband’s recovery. When they noticed him, they all reacted with surprise and got off their chair in response, but he ignored them as he walked past them and around the bed to look down at his sleeping rival.

Lakshman lay facing upward and appeared to be sleeping deeply from the rhythmic movement his chest made with his breathing. For the first time, the Dragon Titan wore a pained expression at seeing his rival and friend lying there after all the damage he had taken for their sake. Everyone was surprised at seeing his expression because they did not believe he was capable of showing such feelings as he was such an arrogant and self-centred person.

“L-Lagron?” Asked Silvera doubtfully. “W-What’s with your expression?”

“My expression?” He asked her, turning to look at her in confusion.

“Yeah. You look like you were in pain,” said Tetra, and Silvera and the others nodded.

This made him frown and say, “Of course, I would feel pain at seeing my long-time rival and friend lying here after all that he had done to protect us. Anyway, I don’t have time to chitchat.” He turned to look down at Lakshman and said, “Lucky, I’m going ahead to deal with whoever attacked us, but you better wake up soon and come as well! I may be able to defeat them, but I could really do with an extra support.

You better wake up soon, not just for my sake, but for everyone’s sake since you are more than just a husband and a warrior to them; you are a hero, their saviour, especially to your two sisters. They regard you very highly so don’t disappoint them by enjoying this nap of yours, got it?”

His sleeping rival did not move or shown any signs that he had heard anything Lagron had spoken to him. Despite this, the Dragon Titan smiled with satisfaction and turned to leave when he saw the amazed looks on everyone’s faces there.

“What’s the matter? You look like you just saw something amazing?” He asked them curiously.

“Yeah, well,” began Tetra in an amazed voice, “who would think that you were capable of speaking like that?”

“Speaking like what?”

“Passionately!”

“Oh. That,” he reacted and smiled. “I guess I’ve been giving a false impression of myself to everyone till now, but that’s okay. I’m going to start being me, or what I used to be like anyway.”

“Huh?” Tetra, Silvera and Cantia reacted with surprise.

“W-What brought on this sudden change?” Silvera asked, looking very confused.

“Who were you trying to be till now anyway?” Ondine asked curiously.

He looked at her and smiled as he replied, “Someone that I took as an inspiration, however in my frustration for not being able to measure up to them, I took extreme steps. But, after being scolded by that person, I realised the error of my ways and start the change now or as soon as I can. Anyway, I have to go.”

“R-Right,” said Silvera, looking both concerned and confused.

“Good luck!” Said Sonia and made a thumbs-up gesture at him.

“I’ll need it,” he replied to her with a smile and made his way out of the room.

He, once again, ran into the twins but this time just patted them gently on the head before going down the stairs. Indira and Priya were both taken by surprise when he patted their heads and watched him and Amaranda leaving the house.

“H-He’s… certainly changed…?” Indira asked while blinking in surprise.

“Y-Yeah…! S-Surprising, i-isn’t it?” Priya asked, looking as equally surprised as her twin sister.

As everyone watched the Dragon Titan leave, Lakshman continued to remain still and silent as he appeared to be fast asleep. Deep in his mind, however, a small voice was calling out his name repeatedly and was growing in strength with each call it made.

“Lucky…! Lucky…! Dammit! Lucky! Wake the hell up already before I punch you like hell!”

“Uh!” Lakshman exclaimed, suddenly opened his eyes and finding himself staying up at the white ceiling.

It took him a moment before realising that he was in his Unconscious World as he lay on the grass with the sound of a swing echoing in the surroundings. He gradually pushed himself up into a sitting position and sighed as he momentarily wondered why he was there before remembering about stopping the attack.

“That was so painful,” he expressed with a weary sigh.

“Yes, it was, you crazy bastard,” replied a familiar voice that instantly shocked him.

As the sound of the swing continued to echo around him, he slowly turned around and saw a familiar figure swinging back and forth on the swing with a grin on his face.

“A-Asura?!” Lakshman exclaimed, his eyes widening in shock.