The Author's POV

The moment I stepped into the flames, I could feel the heat from the fire brush past my skin.

Waving my hand forward and channeling the wind psyons in the air, a protective sphere formed around me, redirecting the flames away from me.

With the sphere around me, I moved forward. Towards the sea of flames.

"Khhh..."

A couple of steps into the fire, a small groan escaped from my lips.

Despite the fact that I was diverting the fire away from me, the heat from the fire was no joke. The evidence of this was my skin which was slowly turning red.

"kh..."

Gritting my teeth, and ignoring the pain, I continued moving forward.

"Haaa!"

"Hue!"

Because of the raging flames blocking my vision, I couldn't see where I was going. Even then, I could still hear the agonizing shouts coming from the guards that were being burnt alive.

Focusing on the screams coming from the guards, I quickly headed in their direction.

They were my goal.

"Khh...khhh..help"

Before long, following the nearest scream, I arrived before a guard. Well, what remained of the guard.

With the air barrier revolving around me, arriving before him, I was able to get a quick glimpse of his condition.

The moment my eyes laid on him, all I saw was a charred body. With his hand raised towards my direction, in a groggy, almost inaudible voice, he begged.

"Help...me...ahh'”!"

"Sure."

Lowering my body, I raised my hand and smacked his head, directly killing him in one hit. At this point, even someone came to his aid, he was too far injured to be saved.

"huuu."

Exhaling, my eyes paused towards what seemed to be the hand of the guard. On it, was a small golden ring.

Taking the ring from the guard's hand, I closed my eyes and channeled my mana.

'Great, everything is here.'

Looking through the ring and seeing that everything was still in there, I smiled in satisfaction.

Taking out the ring that was on my finger and replacing it with the one I took from the guard, I put away my old ring.

Once I put the ring on my finger, staring at the corpse of the guard next to me, I moved back, and once again let it be engulfed by the flames.

Turning around, I moved a couple of meters away from the body and sat down.

"huuu."

Taking a deep breath, I knew that I didn't have much time. Closing my eyes, I decreased the radius of the air shield that was revolving around me.

"khh.."

Burn marks started to appear all over my body, but I didn't care. I had to save as much mana as possible.

The flames around me continued to rage wildly around me for the next ten minutes or so, and just when I was about to run out of mana, the flames finally started showing signs of decreasing.

"Over here."

"There is an injured person over here"

Before long I could hear the sound of the rescue team in the distance. Waving my hand, the air shield around me dissipated, and once it disappeared, the flames instantly enveloped my entire body.

Closing my eyes, using the last mana inside of my body, I muttered.

"Monarch's indifference."

***

Inside of a large room lit by a dim lamp, multiple figures sat around a large oval wooden table. At the moment, a heavy atmosphere shrouded the room as everyone's eyes looked towards a man sitting at the head of the table.

Objectively speaking, he was a handsome man. He had sharp, well-defined facial features that shone beautifully under the dim light.

expression was the

telling me that you still can't track

his head, and staring towards a certain individual sitting on the table, his

of taking care

upon the room. Every single individual's breathing became rough, and sweat trickled down the side of

"..."

Luther wordlessly raised his

massive burn mark that

his fists underneath the table, Luther did not rebuke

"I acknowledge my mistake."

resting his cheek on his fist, the

and suddenly standing up. "Please give

'”Bang!

table and startling

will grab that fucker and kill

single word that came out of his mouth was coated with unimaginable

thought about the incident that happened not too long ago. Such disgrace was something he had never experienced before, it remained in his mind

at

you will take responsibility for

"Yes."

Luther firmly replied.

"...I see, alright."

"Really?"

up as the flames of hatred that were

will not

"mhm...but, there's one condition."

"One condition?"

excitement died down, and what replaced it was

expected, there's no free lunch in

favors in the Monolith. There were only deals,

"What's the condition?"

worry, it's

the process of hunting down 876, I want you

"A couple of recruits?"

I believe in their potential. Let this be a good experience for

"...Is that all?"

teased. "What, you

no, no,

"Good."

and taking his attention away

topic. Long story short, we're planning on

"What!? Monica Jeffrey?"

"ah?!"

"The sunset witch?"

other, murmurs and

room knew who Monica

the next SS ranked hero, a prodigy that had never been seen before, and the Monolith's

his head on his hands that were interlocked together, Xavier calmly explained. "The reason why I'm telling you this is because the higher-ups are

the meantime, once the higher-ups leave to take care of that pest, it will be your job to ensure everyone's safety. If there is anything big that is happening, it'll be your job to take care of

words, everyone drew a

what Xavier said was true, and the higher-ups actually succeeded in killing Monica Jeffrey, then the war between the Monolith and

longer

atmosphere

what everyone was thinking, Xavier sharply looked at

repeat, did everyone understand

other for a brief moment, standing up, everyone

"Yes!"

meeting is

his seat, Xavier turned around and made his way out of

after him, were the rest of the people that

***

unknown amount of time,

didn't know how much time had passed, but eventually, regaining control

I opened my eyes, I was met with

and my vision

Or did

boundary between reality

body ached and many questions emerged inside of my mind as memories started flooding

'Right, the fire.'

was then that slowly I started remembering what had happened to me moments prior. The pain that

"Ah."

audible gasp escaped from my lips. Covered from head to toe with bandages, I found myself inside of what seemed

people in a similar state

"Oh, you're up?"

soft voice called out