Speed Is King

“You have twenty four Ascendant Runes??” Primal Alexander shouted with a bellyful of pleasant surprise.

“Eighteen now. But yes, twenty four in a month. Consider that one rune a free appetizer! If you want the rest of the runes, pay up!” Jessica Sands gave Primal Alexander a broad smile as she shamelessly extorted him.

“What do you think, great grandma? Ten years for a complete set of twenty four Ascendant Runes? You will be the strongest being in the known universe and you can even beat up that dul dul guy if you want to! I know you’re extremely irked by his greater strength… Right? Hee hee!” Jessica Sands went on.

“You youngsters are all conmen. Fine! Ten years for a complete set! No more than that! I want to enjoy my retirement after that!” Elise Sands glowered at Jessica Sands for a moment before bursting into a wide smile when Jessica handed her a psionic device.

“Eighteen runes. Six more when I am done.” Jessica Sands said and winked conspiratorially at Elliot.

He had long accepted Jessica Sands as his lucky star, and so he was not particularly surprised that she somehow managed to even get her super powerful great grandma to get onboard in their plan for domination._{pᴀɴᴅᴀ-ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ.ᴄᴏᴍ}

“Here’s yours! Why don’t you have a race with great grandma to see who can master the eighteen runes first? In fact, wouldn’t it be fun if you two have a bet on it?” Jessica Sands said rather excitedly.

“Hmmmmm. That does sound entertaining.” Elise Sands old and aged eyes blazed with fearsome competitive spirit. “I bet five years. If you can master the eighteen runes faster than me, I will help you for an additional fast years. If not, then I will help you for only five years! Do you dare to accept?”

“Haha! Thank you for fifteen years then, esteemed senior!” Elliot laughed and bowed deeply.

“Hmph! We’ll see about that!” Elise Sands said as she immediately closed her eyes to dive into the eighteen runes.

“Uhhh, you want to compete now? We still have a mission to complete in the Shadow Realm, remember?” Elliot reminded her.

“One rune! Let’s determine the bet on just one rune then! After that we can go and massacre the shadow realm bastards.” Elise Sands said without bothering to open her eyes. She had already started studying the next rune! _{pᴀɴᴅᴀ ɴoᴠᴇʟ}

“Alright then. I guess delaying our mission by a few hours wouldn’t hurt.” Elliot said with a sigh and almost caused Elise Sands to vomit blood.

He closed his eyes as well and dived into studying the next Ascendant Rune.

“A few hours? He only planned to spend a few hours to master an entire Ascendant Rune! Bullshit! He is lying to throw off my concentration! What a sneaky, devious bastard!” Elise Sands thought to herself and quickly removed all distracting thoughts to focus on studying the next rune.

It was a fire-based Ascendant Rune, filled with glorious conflagrations, infernos and blistering heat that could melt planets and vaporize life forms in a blink of an eye.

Its practical applications were extremely creative, and studying the rune immediately opened up Elise Sands’ mind on many wonderful ideas on assassinations, massacres, flame defenses and many, many more.

“What a great fire-based Ascendant Rune!” Elise Sands couldn’t help but sigh as she finished a brief overview. _{ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀ​ꪶ​}

She settled down and focused on the first massive section of the Ascendant Rune, one that detailed a highly destructive spell involving over a thousand meteors and the deeply intricate weaving of fire energy to trigger a spontaneous combustion of the very air itself across a very large area, and in a very scalable manner.

After almost five hours…

“Hohoho! I’ve done it! First section done! Just eleven more to go! Damn, that was extremely taxing on my mind. I should take a quick rest first and check out that little bastard.” Elise Sands said to herself with a smile.

“Ah, you’re done too? Impressive! You’re only around a minute slower than me! I must admit, you’re truly a mighty Rune Master!” Elliot said with an impressed voice.

“You… you actually finished that first section so quickly as well? Good. Very good!” Elise Sands narrowed her eyes slightly as she graciously accepted the loss.

“It was just the first section afterall, and I can still catch up…”

“Huh? What first section? You mean the air fryer and the meteor rain?” Elliot asked in confusion. “That was a cute little trick. I finished it within a few minutes. You mean… you just spent the past five hours learning just the first section??” Elliot frowned at Elise Sands.

Spurt. Spurt. Spurt.

A few liters of imaginary blood spurted out of Elise Sands’ mouth as she realized that Elliot had finished studying the entire rune instead of just the first section!!

“Impossible! That Ascendant Rune is too complex to be mastered in just five hours! Prove it! The final section requires the mastery of all nine earlier sections. Cast it if you can!” Elise Sands shouted.

“Sure. Why not?” Elliot said easily. He had gained another five years of help from a Saint! Awesome!

Elliot immediately weaved his Cosmic Dragon Energy according to the Rune’s final section and caused a series of twelve blood red portals to appear.

At the same time, thick fiery chains appeared from them and linked up with each other, creating some sort of a cage.

Boom!!!

A tower of flames shot out from the portals and filled the sky with flames.

“I am suppressing my energy to one percent. I don’t want to destroy the planet.” Elliot remarked as he continued his weaving.

However, Elise Sands’ face was already one of resigned acceptance.

It was unmistakable.

The final section called for a complete dominion and summon of countless Flame Gods from the Realm of Fire.

Elliot’s suppression had reduced the number to twelve minor portals and a huge major portal which was the tower of flames.

But if he had allowed his full strength to manifest, then it would exactly be as the final section described.

Elliot had truly mastered the Ascendant Rune of Fire!!