Ch.3939. El-Rena’s Wish

“Fly forth!”

E.lena shouted. Simultaneously, hundreds of strands of hair floating in the air rushed toward my heart.

Each one was lethal. These weren’t simple threads. Reinforced by verbal commands, they possessed strength rivaling titanium.

Their speed: 170 kilometers per hour. Faster than a professional pitcher’s fastball.

If hit, death.

Even with a dragon’s hide, this many strands would pierce through me like soft pastry.

So I too must rush toward death.

“Death’s Blue.”

[C■SUS■AER■LA]

My vision inverts.

My eyeballs scream at the sudden flood of information.

A massive scythe appears in both hands. The blue blade flicks its tongue, eager to harvest souls.

Let’s go.

◈ ◈ ◈

E.lena couldn’t understand what happened in that moment.

More precisely, she couldn’t even perceive it.

She hadn’t let her guard down. Her opponent was Gerogius. The man who had repeatedly resisted her verbal commands. She had planned her next move in case he dodged this attack too.

Hundreds of floating strands of hair.

A trap she had laid while enduring close combat with Gerogius. As soon as he entered her range, she fired them all at once.

There were no openings.

Simultaneous verbal commands.

Vocal cords trained tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of times. Beyond rapid vocalization, approaching ventriloquism—speaking while speaking simultaneously.

With this technique, she weaponized all those strands of hair, yet.

Swish—

What E.lena saw was Gerogius moving as if teleporting.

And the massive scythe in his hands.

Her own hair turning to white ash and scattering.

Like turning a page in a book before her eyes, the scene changed unnaturally.

Like teleportation.

“—No.”

E.lena saw it. With her enhanced eye muscles, she witnessed it clearly.

In less than 0.1 seconds, Gerogius had moved through the gaps of time and “individually stabbed” hundreds of strands of hair with that scythe.

‘High-speed, swift, ultra-speed, no. What should that realm be called—’

If it were merely fast movement, E.lena could have handled it easily.

Even when she subdued Kang Wan, she had only thought of it as high-speed.

But this transcended that category.

E.lena’s verbal commands were effective only on physical forces.

That was a power beyond the laws of physics.

Moreover, her hair.

E.lena quickly realized what was happening as she watched it turn to ash.

“—It weathered.”

No damage had been inflicted on the strands of hair.

They weren’t cut, nor wounded.

They simply aged, weathered by the passage of time, eroded into dust.

They met a natural death.

“That scythe—”

That was dangerous.

E.lena sensed it.

Gerogius turned to look at E.lena.

In those golden eyes, she finally felt, for the first time in her life, that emotion.

Fear.

“‘Stop.'”

High-speed verbal command. The moment E.lena’s compulsion took effect.

Slash!

Gerogius’s scythe cut through the air.

E.lena immediately understood what this action meant.

He had just killed her verbal command.

A drop of cold sweat trickled down E.lena’s cheek.

Gerogius entered her domain again.

E.lena also increased the speed of her lips.

“‘Stop.'”

“‘Stop.'” “‘Stop.'”

“‘Stop.'” “‘Stop.'” “‘Stop.'” “‘Stop.'” “‘Stop.'” “‘Stop.'” “‘Stop’!” “‘Stop’!” “‘Stop’!!”

Gerogius swung his scythe forcefully, killing all of E.lena’s commands.

All commands to stop were nullified.

All this in 0.027 seconds.

The next moment, Gerogius was standing behind E.lena.

With the blue blade of his scythe pressed against her neck.

“My victory, E.lena.”

BOOM!!

As Gerogius declared his victory, the floor cracked and a storm arose from the shockwave of his movement.

“I’m not yet—”

“You agreed to admit defeat if you were in a fatal situation. You must have figured out this scythe’s ability.”

E.lena gulped.

“Why did you hide it until now?”

“Because it’s an ability I hate using. ‘Death’s Blue’ isn’t simply an ability that accelerates my body and accelerates targets toward death. It requires a price. Literally, I must rush toward death.”

Gerogius calmly stated the fact.

“It cuts my lifespan by as much as I accelerate.”

“What—”

E.lena immediately understood that he was insane.

There’s one thing that all powerful people who have everything ultimately want.

Time.

Time is fair to everyone. Youth never returns. Death eventually comes. Neither emperors who hold the world nor wealthy tycoons can escape this.

Gerogius had lost lifespan—a day, two days, a month, perhaps a year—for each movement to dodge and pierce the hair spears, for rushing toward E.lena, for killing her commands.

He was casually saying he had paid with time to defeat E.lena.

‘You want me that badly?’

E.lena was dumbfounded but quickly dismissed the thought.

‘No, I’m the same.’

Isn’t strengthening my verbal commands also shortening my time?

But even so.

“I cannot acknowledge defeat.”

E.lena denied it.

“Accelerating targets toward death? That’s time acceleration. You might have just created a trick to make this scythe’s ability appear that way. Did you plant this setup from the beginning to determine victory, Geo? If you could bring someone to death just by stabbing them, there would be no ability user in the world who could oppose you. It’s hard to believe.”

“You coward!”

Dark Matter, who had been watching the fight, lunged at E.lena. E.lena, not expecting this interruption, took her punch head-on.

“Geo used his ultimate move at the cost of his life, and you’re saying what? You said with your own mouth you’d admit defeat!”

“You dare call me a coward? You rootless hunting dog! ‘Stop!'”

Dark Matter froze in place as if solidified. Her fist trembled with rage.

“What do you think, Geo? Do you also want to call me a coward?”

Gerogius didn’t answer.

“We’re villains, aren’t we? It’s only natural that we value betrayal over trust, contracts over loyalty. Vengeance is a threat to the Holy Tree. I can’t give up an important match because of a verbal promise.”

E.lena said this, but Gerogius judged that wasn’t all.

At this point, having come to this one-on-one match, her personal desire was deeply involved.

She truly wanted to confirm it.

Gerogius’s power.

“Geo won this match! Release the command you put on Geo! He’ll get hurt again!”

Dark Matter shouted desperately, straining against the command.

“Hurt? Hmm.”

A strange smile appeared on E.lena’s face. Judging by Dark Matter’s words, it was clear that Gerogius was also affected by attack commands.

He had only been inducing her misconception until now.

E.lena parted her lips to unleash attacks. But Gerogius was faster.

“You’ll regret it.”

“Why?”

“Because with the failure of the Skylens Project, the only way to strengthen your commands is through my skill.”

“Dark Matter is certainly an amazing child. She’s already moved 2 centimeters. But that’s just raising a rookie to this level.”

E.lena’s hair fluttered.

“I’ve seen your power well, Geo. I admit it, you’re strong. But to make me feel the threat of death, shouldn’t you have at least ripped out my heart?”

“I didn’t want to hurt you.”

“You’re soft. No matter how strong an ability is, if the user is soft, the ability becomes futile too. With that mindset, you want to strengthen my commands?”

“It took a year.”

“…What are you saying?”

Gerogius continued calmly.

“Blue Saber didn’t even know she had an ability. She was just a punk biker from the back alleys.”

“…What?”

“Yellow Cloaker was a sophomore business major. Far from combat, he had never thrown a punch in his life.”

E.lena’s eyebrows trembled.

This man, what is he saying now.

“Green Nature was a dropout from the Hero Academy. With low grades, she was bullied by peers and ignored by teachers.”

“Silver Mirrored had the basics. Raised as an assassin in a clan all her life. She had skills as she joined late. But at best, she was just a successful B-rank hero.”

“They certainly had talent.”

“But do you think talent alone can make someone an S-rank hero and earn the title of S-Sentai in just one year?”

“Red Dragon’s ability was known as a single arrow of light. In fact, he has four active skills. You just saw one of them, E.lena.”

“But the most important ability is the passive skill ‘Soul of Comrades.'”

“The ability to accelerate the growth of companions.”

As he said this, Gerogius deactivated his transformation.

The hard crimson exterior disappeared, replaced by soft human skin.

E.lena couldn’t help but recognize the face of the man standing there.

And at that moment, she too understood everything.

“Now let me ask you, E.lena.”

Gerogius, Red Dragon, Jung Ui-seok was looking straight into E.lena’s eyes.

E.lena felt her heart accelerating as if about to burst under that gaze.

She unconsciously gripped the hem of her skirt with her fingertips.

“…What do you want to know?”

“Who do you want to save?”

E.lena gritted her teeth. They cracked and bled.

“There are things even you don’t know, Geo.”

“I don’t claim to know everything.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

E.lena’s eyes drifted as if entranced.

Red Dragon.

This man, the strongest hero, could have taken her life at any time.

But he didn’t, instead confronting her with all his might.

He had faced her sincerely.

He poured everything into winning while keeping his promise not to hurt or kill her.

‘You have something you want too.’

And it’s a very strong wish.

E.lena finally spoke.

“Yoo Cha-mi.”

In a delicate voice, she answered.

“I want to save Yoo Cha-mi.”