The moment Elsa's soft crying echoed through the ruined building, the angry boys froze mid-motion. Their raised fists, their hostile glares, their readiness for violence—all of it evaporated in an instant.
There was no helping it.
She was the dream girl who had occupied the fantasies of countless male students. When she cried, reason simply ceased to exist.
Every boy present subconsciously softened, their anger cooling like ice water had been poured over their heads. The heavyset girl who had been shrieking at them was instantly forgotten, her moral blackmail rendered powerless in the face of a single tear from Elsa's perfect face.
"Elsa, what's wrong? Why are you crying?"
A tall male student with long hair rushed over almost reflexively, his face etched with desperate concern. His name was Liam, and before the apocalypse, he had been the captain of the university basketball team—athletic, popular, and confident.
But more importantly, he was Elsa's number one devotee. Her most loyal simp.
If Elsa told him to go east, he wouldn't dare go west. If she frowned, he'd panic. If she shed tears, he'd lose all rationality and common sense. His entire world revolved around her approval, her attention, her smile.
And Elsa knew this very well.
She had used him countless times before—manipulated him with practiced ease—and now, she activated that familiar routine again. The one that had never failed her.
On the side, Nana, the obese female student, and several other girls silently rolled their eyes at the display. They all knew Elsa's tricks intimately. They'd watched her deploy them dozens of times over the years.
But since Elsa's manipulation benefited them—since it meant someone else would take the risks while they escaped—no one bothered to expose her.
"Wuu... I don't want everyone to fight..." Elsa sobbed softly, tears streaming down her cheeks in perfectly timed rivulets. "But I don't want to die either..."
She lifted her gaze to meet Liam's eyes, her own shimmering with moisture and fear.
"Brother... can you save me?"
Her voice trembled, pitiful and fragile—a damsel in the most desperate distress.
Liam's heart shattered on the spot, crumbling into a thousand pieces. Every protective instinct in his body screamed at him to act, to save her, to be her hero.
However, despite being completely devoted to her, he wasn't entirely brainless.
"Elsa... it's not that I don't want to save you..." He hesitated, conflict clear on his face. "That white ape outside isn't like normal mutated creatures. I can deal with ordinary ones. I've killed dozens since this all started."
He gestured helplessly toward the windows where the monster's shadow still loomed.
"But that thing... if I go out there, I'll die. We all will. It's too strong."
He spoke honestly, and his assessment was accurate. Liam was a superpowered individual—one of only two in their group—and his abilities had protected them through countless encounters. But the monster outside was on an entirely different level, radiating power that made his instincts scream danger.
"Wuu... Brother ..."
Elsa cried harder, her shoulders shaking. Then her eyes darted slightly—a calculating glint so brief it was almost invisible.
"Didn't I say before... as long as you protect me this time..." She paused, letting the words hang in the air. "I'll give you a chance... to pursue me."
The building fell into stunned silence.
Then—
"What?!" Liam's eyes widened in utter disbelief, his mouth falling open. "Elsa... are you serious? You'll really give me a chance?!"
His breathing became rapid, almost hyperventilating. His hands trembled.
Three years.
He had chased her for three full years—through classes, social events, chance meetings he'd carefully orchestrated. Three years of hoping, dreaming, fantasizing about the day she might finally see him as something more than a convenient tool.
And now—she was finally giving him hope.
"I'll do it!" The words burst from him before conscious thought could intervene. "I'll save you! As long as you give me a chance, I'll go out there even if it kills me!"
Without a second thought, without any consideration for the implications, Liam agreed.
The rational part of his brain completely shut down, overridden by years of obsession and a single moment of promised affection.
"Good."
Elsa's crying immediately slowed, tapering off with remarkable speed. A faint smile flashed through her eyes—so quick that no one noticed except perhaps Nana, who looked away in disgust.
The other survivors felt a complex mix of relief and contempt. Relief because someone else would be the sacrifice. Contempt because they all understood exactly what had just happened.
What an idiot, several of them thought simultaneously. A chance to pursue? If you die out there, what's left to pursue? She's sending you to your death with a promise she'll never have to keep.
"You—come with me."
Liam immediately went into full "hero mode," his posture straightening as he pointed at several boys nearby. His voice carried the false confidence of someone trying to convince himself he was doing the right thing.
"We'll lure that white ape away. Create a chance for Elsa and the others to escape."
Unfortunately, among those he pointed at were several unwilling students—including the other superpowered boy, a thin youth with the ability to manipulate small objects.
They tried to back away, shaking their heads.
"Wait, I didn't agree to—"
"There has to be another way—"
But Liam's expression instantly darkened, his face twisting into something ugly and threatening.
"If you don't come..." His voice dropped to a lethal whisper. "I'll deal with you right now. And I promise, what I do to you will be worse than what that ape will do."
It wasn't an empty threat. His ability far surpassed theirs—he could kill them before they could even react.
In this ruined world, the choice between immediate death or a slim chance at survival was no real choice at all.
In the end, they could only grit their teeth and follow, shooting hateful glares at Elsa's back.
Moments later, Liam and five unlucky students rushed out of the building's side entrance, shouting and waving their arms to attract attention.
To the white ape, they were nothing more than moving toys—small, fragile things that squeaked amusingly when broken.
The creature's intelligent eyes lit up with predatory glee.
With a thunderous roar that shook the surrounding buildings, it abandoned its stalking position and charged after them, dropping to all fours for greater speed.
Exactly as planned.
"Run!"
The remaining group—Nana, Elsa, and about a dozen others—immediately bolted from the opposite direction. No hesitation. No looking back. No thought for the men who had just sacrificed themselves.
"I hope Liam can last a little longer," Elsa said softly as she ran—without even turning her head to watch.
There was no sadness on her face. No guilt. No second thoughts.
Only urgency. Only calculation. Only survival.
She ran with all her strength, abandoning the man who had just promised to die for her—without a single backward glance, without a moment of regret.
That's right.
Elsa had never truly valued Liam even once. Not for a single moment in all those years.
Her heart was nothing like the pure, gentle image she cultivated so carefully on the surface. Beneath the tears and the trembling voice and the damsel routine lay something cold and ruthlessly selfish.
In her eyes, men like Liam were nothing more than tools—useful resources to be exploited and discarded. Not even worthy of being called people, really. Just convenient mechanisms for getting what she wanted.
She was an extremely selfish, extremely arrogant woman who had built an entire identity around manipulation.
For so many years, she had never truly taken a liking to any man. Not the richest heirs who showered her with gifts. Not powerful tycoons who offered her the world. Not even the most handsome elites who matched her in appearance.
In her eyes, none of them were worthy of her.
What she enjoyed was the process—letting men give everything while she gave nothing in return. Hope, despair, manipulation, control. That was her pleasure. That was her power.
"Damn it! Move! Ability—Golden Guard!"
At that moment, Liam and the others were already being overtaken by the white ape. The distance they'd gained was nothing to a creature that could cover thirty meters in a single bound.
The monster casually swung its massive arm, like a person swatting at an annoying fly.
Yet even such a casual motion carried enough force to pulverize concrete, to shatter steel.
At the critical moment, Liam activated his ability with a desperate shout.
A golden shield materialized in front of him—translucent and shimmering, radiating protective energy. This was the ability that had saved him countless times since the apocalypse began, that had made him invaluable to every group he'd joined.
His Golden Guard had never failed him.
Until now.
BOOM!
The white ape's hand slapped down with contemptuous ease.
The golden shield shattered like glass, fragmenting into a thousand glittering pieces that dissolved into nothing.
At the same time, Liam and the others were blown apart—their bodies smashed into pulp, reduced to unrecognizable masses of flesh and bone scattered across the cracked pavement.
No screams. No resistance. No final words.
Just instant, absolute death.
After casually killing those "flies," the white ape didn't stop to feed or investigate. It simply dropped to all fours again and charged forward at terrifying speed—straight toward Nana, Elsa, and the fleeing survivors.
The ground trembled with each impact of its limbs. The monster's hot breath echoed behind them, growing closer with each passing second.
Elsa completely lost her composure, her carefully maintained facade cracking.
"That useless trash!" she screamed while running. "He didn't even last five minutes! What a waste! What use was that idiot?!"
No tears now. No gentle sadness. Just raw, venomous contempt for the man who had died believing she might love him.
"Run, Elsa!" someone screamed from beside her.
At that moment, the ape's massive hand had already descended above their heads, casting them in shadow. The wind of its movement was like a gale, blowing dust and debris everywhere.
Seeing the hand falling, Nana instinctively reached out, grabbing Elsa's arm, trying to pull her forward faster in a last desperate attempt at mutual survival.
But—
Elsa suddenly extended her slender leg.
She tripped Nana.
Deliberately. Precisely. Without hesitation.
That's right.
Elsa knew very clearly—running like this, none of them would survive. The ape was too fast, too relentless. It would catch them all within seconds.
The only way to live... was to find a sacrifice. Someone to buy a few more seconds.
"Ah—!" Nana screamed as she fell, her body hitting the ground hard. "Elsa, why would you—?!"
She never imagined that the innocent-looking campus goddess beside her—the girl who cried so beautifully, who seemed so gentle and pure—would be this vicious.
Nana was dragged back by the fall, losing precious distance. Despair flooded her eyes as she understood.
She had been betrayed. She was going to die because of Elsa's calculated cruelty.
"Ahhh—!"
Looking at the enormous hand falling from the sky like judgment itself, Nana screamed in absolute terror, her voice raw and primal.
And just as that hand was about to crush her into paste—
Five streaks of differently colored light slashed through the air with surgical precision.
SHRRRK!
The white ape's massive hand was severed cleanly at the wrist, cut through bone and muscle and tendon as if they were paper.
The enormous limb crashed onto the street, shaking the ground with its impact. Blood sprayed everywhere in arterial gouts, painting the ruins red.
Nana, Elsa, and the others froze in complete shock, unable to process what had just happened.
Did someone save them? Or was this another monster?
"Look!" Someone screamed, pointing upward with a trembling hand. "In the sky!"
Everyone instinctively looked up.
Above the white ape's head, amidst the rolling clouds—
A man stood in midair.
Tall. Handsome. Over six feet. Wearing a black trench coat that fluttered dramatically in the wind, his body suspended effortlessly as if gravity itself had no claim on him.
His expression was calm. Cold. Absolute.
It was Elric.
He had arrived just in time. If he had been even one second later, Nana would have been nothing but a red stain on the pavement.
"ROAR—!"
The white ape screamed in agony, clutching its severed stump. Blood poured between its fingers as it staggered backward.
At that moment, strange black rune-like patterns appeared across its entire body, glowing with malevolent power. The red symbols that had been pulsing before suddenly flared brighter.
A violent hurricane surged around the creature, whipping up debris and dust in a massive vortex.
The ape crouched—then—
BOOM!
It launched itself into the air with enough force to crater the ground beneath it, flying upward toward Elric like a missile of flesh and fury.
"It can fly?"
Elric's eyebrows raised slightly, genuine interest flickering in his expression.
"This supernatural creature is even stronger than that mutated crocodile I killed last week."
Perfect.
He hadn't upgraded his Devil Fruits in a while. His powers needed new fuel, new enhancement.
Killing this thing, harvesting its crystal core—that would be just right.
Elric raised his arm slowly, threads beginning to materialize around his fingers. His expression remained utterly calm, as if he were about to swat an insect rather than fight a ten-meter monster.
"Great Hound."
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