Scarlet Dragon King – Chapter 22: The Storm That Weeps
The Trial Plane had gone quiet.
The flames of gods, death, chaos, and creation still flickered across the broken horizon, but there was no new mirror. No divine summons. No cosmic voice.
Just a soft hum in the distance—lightning without thunder.
Eric found her at the edge of the mountain.
Akeno.
Her long hair swayed in the wind, her shrine maiden outfit fluttering like a prayer left unfinished. She didn't look back.
"Everyone's getting stronger," she said, her voice too calm. "Conquering trials. Claiming flames. And I…"
Eric stepped beside her. "You smile for everyone but yourself."
That made her flinch.
But she didn't deny it.
"I carry two bloodlines," Akeno whispered. "A shrine maiden… and a fallen angel's daughter. One side burned away. The other tried to kill what remained."
Her voice cracked.
"I hated him. My father. I hated him so much. But I hated me more. Because part of me… still wanted to be loved by him."
Eric didn't speak.
He just listened.
And that was what finally made her turn to him—eyes rimmed with tears but glowing faintly with crackling lightning.
"I smiled for Rias," she said. "Because she saved me. I smiled for the team. For the world. But deep down… I felt like I was pretending to deserve it all."
Eric lifted a hand, brushing a thumb against her cheek.
"You don't have to pretend with me."
Then, without warning, the ground trembled. Not from gods.
From her.
Akeno gasped as a mirror rose behind her—not divine, not eldritch. It was hers. A stormy obsidian pane surrounded by thunderclouds, laced with lightning and sorrow.
It didn't challenge her.
It reflected her.
A child crying beneath a burning house.
A teenager hiding pain with seductive smiles.
A woman torn between love and self-loathing.
She fell to her knees.
"I don't want to carry this anymore," she sobbed. "I want to live for me."
Eric knelt with her.
"You already are," he whispered. "And I'll carry the rest… if you let me."
Akeno clutched his hand.
And the mirror cracked—
Then turned golden-blue as thunder roared not with anger… but with freedom.
The storm became calm.
And Akeno rose.
Not as a broken shrine maiden.
But as a woman finally free to be whole.
She didn't say a word.
She kissed him—fiercely, honestly, and with lightning dancing through their skin.
The others watched from afar. Rias smiled softly. Grayfia closed her eyes. Even Shiva… bowed her head in respect.
Because Akeno's flame didn't burn.
It healed.
And for the first time, her laughter didn't hide pain.
It sang.