Boss Fight

[New quest!]

[Elara's Choice!]

Quest Rank: [SSS+]

[Boss Fight!]

[Defeat the Quest Boss, Elara the 7th Sovereign!]

Accept Quest?

[Accept] [Decline]

"Accept!"

[DING!]

[Immortality has been restored! Reversing the sign of aging!]

In the middle of the street, Sorin's body suddenly reversed his aging. His wrinkles disappeared, and his silver hair turned back into black. Not to mention his back and body started to straighten. He became as tall and as strong as he was.

Thankfully, there were not that many people on the street. But still, the people in the cafe were alerted by Sorin, who previously ran toward the street to stop the car.

Because of that, Elara grasped his hand. "Come with me."

Sorin followed her to enter the car. She told him to scoot out of her way and sat beside him. She said to her chauffeur to bring her back to the hotel, "Torniamo all'hotel."

Elara didn't get it. For eight quintillion branches of time, she had never encountered something like this. Not even once. But suddenly, her connection to the future and the past her was broken.

Right, wasn't this one the branch four quintillion? And this is when Sorin was 55. That means it was quite in the middle of his life after leaving his title and his death since he left when he was 23 and died when he would be 87. Elara felt her chest trembling when suddenly, she heard his voice.

"Eight quintillions, but not a single timeline you truly let me choose," Sorin said after he read her mind.

"I let you do once, and you died!" Elara felt warm drops of tears rolling down her cheek.

"Each and every timeline, you let me die," whether from being a Sovereign or from old age.

"I was trying to give you the life you want! The life you deserve—mm!"

Elara melted into tears. She gasped and moaned between his touch and kisses, entangling herself in his arms. She realized how she missed him. How lonely those infinite amounts of days she spent without him. She wanted to whisper his name, but she couldn't do it lest someone would suffer.

Elara gasped and realized she was inside a car, and there was still another person driving the car for them. She pushed Sorin away, blushing uncontrollably at his mischievous smile. She yelled at him, "Back off!"

She glanced at the front seat, seeing how the driver's eyes avoided them awkwardly. Her face started to violently redden, almost as if the red was going to drip out from her melted face full of tears.

Sorin knew what was on her mind and hugged her, covering her face with her jacket.

"Excuse me, sir. Can you go faster?" Sorin asked in English but then realized that the chauffeur only spoke Italian. He met eyes with him with the rear-view mirror and smiled apologetically.

The man laughed. He said in Italian that made Elara flinch in his embrace, "Nessun problema! Non preoccuparti di me, e tranquillizza la tua signora. Fermala dal piangere... trattala bene."

Sorin tried to make Elara face him. He wanted to ask her what he was saying, but the red-faced Elara shrunk and buried her face in his chest. She whispered in her mind, [Don't try to read my mind. I'm not telling you.]

But Sorin could get the gist of it. Maybe the man misunderstood them for a bickering couple.

Well.

Their relationship was... complicated.

Moreover, he still didn't know what happened that made him able to break through the heavenly restriction that was set for him. What had been reversed by his reign?

Even though Sorin was trying to read Elara's mind for any explanation, he kept facing error messages ringing beside him.

[DING!]

[Error! Mind Reading failed due to rank restriction!]

[Error! Error! Error!]

What was she thinking about that made him unable to read her mind?

Before they realized it, they had arrived at the hotel Elara was staying. When they left the car, Sorin noticed a plane ticket inside Elara's jacket fell to the ground. She was going to leave for Venice airport, and her destination was...

"You're going to America? What happened to 'warping'?" Sorin asked her.

Elara turned to him, looking at the airport ticket, and snatched it from him. "Uncle and Papa had passed, so we can't warp anymore," she answered.

Sorin was stunned on the spot. He remembered that Elara mentioned her father's death. Sorin also knew about Grandpa's death, but he didn't know that Uncle had also...

"Everyone has passed," Elara turned away to throw the plane ticket into the hotel's trash can. Well, she'd be late even if she tried to rush to the airport now.

Sorin followed her step closely. He wanted to see her expression, but her pace was difficult to follow until they arrived at the receptionist's desk. The woman behind the desk stood up with a face full of questions. "Miss, you come back... Is there anything left behind?"

"No," Elara answered. "I will stay for another night. Prepare me a room."

"Yes. Do you mind having your previous room?" the receptionist lady asked.

"I don't," Elara answered and received the room's keycard.

Sorrin followed her again, asking her after they entered the elevator and finally were alone. "Why do you book a room? I have a house at Covolo. Uh... I bought the same building we used to meet with the other Sovereigns years ago."

"I don't want to go there," Elara's voice cracked as if she was trying to suppress her cry. "I've also sold every property we had ever used."

Sorin felt that the memory was too unbearable for Elara to face. And now she couldn't even face him properly. She looked upset, and more than that, she was sad and scared. She did everything to save him, but now she had failed.

A minute passed. Sorin immediately felt something amiss. He turned to Elara, who was still standing there in silence. He glanced at the elevator's floor number display. He widened his eyes when he realized the floor kept changing back and forth from floor 7 to 8, back to 7, and then 8.

It had been in the loop for more than a minute now.

"Elara!" Sorin grasped her shoulder just to see her resolute and sharp eyes. She was the one who was trapping him in this loop. Sorin sneered, realizing why the system warned him of the quest previously.

She stared at him right in his eyes. "I will trap you for eternity here with me, so I won't need to see you die anymore."