The Author's POV

"Wow, that's a lot of stuff."

Staring at the commander's dimensional storage, I was amazed by the things he had inside of it. From potions to artifacts, he was loaded.

'Ah, I should check that stuff later, my priority should be the card.'

There was a time and place for everything.

Now was not the time for me to get distracted by the things inside of his dimensional storage.

My priority should be the card. Without it, my escape route was blocked.

"Here."

Thankfully, it didn't take long for me to find it as a black card quickly appeared on the palm of my hands.

Staring at the card, I put it back in my dimensional space and headed for the door.

"...I better hurry out of this place."

The hardest task was completed. All I needed to do now was rush all the way towards the gates at the first level.

"Commander, is everything alright?"

However, just as I was about to leave the place, someone else entered the room. The moment the individual entered and my eyes landed on him, my pupils dilated and my body froze.

"...What are you doing here?"

I muttered out loud.

"Hm? You know me?" Gazing in my direction for a brief moment, Matthew's eyes paused towards a certain corpse behind me. "Commander?"

Upon spotting the commander's dead body, instead of panicking, a wild yellow hue started revolving around his body. With his eyes focused on me, he commanded.

"Ezra! Alisa!"

"You called?"

"What's going on leader?"

At his call, two more people showed up. A wild aura revolved around their body.

"!"

Making eye contact with Matthew who nudged his head in my direction, they immediately got the gist of the situation and got into battle positions.

"You." Unsheathing his saber, Matthew didn't immediately attack. Pointing it in my direction, he said. "From your previous words, it seems as though you know me." Staring at my face for a couple of seconds, a trace of disgust flashed across his eyes. "...but I don't ever recall meeting someone like you. Especially with a face as memorable as yous."

Listening to his words, a light sigh escaped from my lips as I quickly regained my calm.

"Haaa..."

Scratching the back of my head, I muttered out loud. "Your attempt at trying to buy time is honestly pathetic." A green hue suddenly enveloped my body as I placed my hand on the grip of the sword. "Oh, and about what you said before, I don't actually know you, I was just expecting Luther to come by himself."

This part wasn't a lie.

I had originally expected Luther to try to accomplish this mission by himself with the goal of taking the mask for himself in mind. Never did I expect Matthew to show up.

But it didn't matter.

Gazing at Matthew and the three people behind me, neither one of us moved. We were both trying our best to waste time. Him for getting a better understanding of the situation and getting in battle formation with his members, and me for my mana.

'I need to finish this quick.'

I thought to myself, as my eyes peered through the gap of the door behind Matthew and his two companions.

Making sure that there was no one else, I once again looked at them and analyzed their strength.

'Judging from the mana revolving around them, all of them are ranked, with Matthew being slightly stronger at rank.'

This wasn't strange though. For the longest time, Matthew had always been stronger than me.

However, ever since last meeting him, I had finally caught up with him.

Currently, standing opposite to me in a triangular formation with Matthew at the back, they were glaring at me with unprecedented calmness.

It became evident to me that they were extremely experienced individuals.

could see

make matters worse, Matthew was standing more than ten meters away from me. This was outside of the range of the third

need to

was of the

called for backup, then the situation would truly

plans as they would think that I was going for the normal gates, it would reduce the chances of me escaping by a certain degree. This, I did not

the sword, a subtle clicking

—Click!

movement of the [Keiki style]

of Matthew. With my sword unsheathed, I stabbed my sword in the direction of

—Spurt!

time to react before the sword

"Huek!"

on the ground. If one looked carefully, they'd see a small hole in the middle

the

her weapon, she quickly dashed in my

he watched Alisa dash in my direction. His face was incomparably white. Almost as though he had

the [Keiki style] : Quick

—Click!

clicking sound rang in the room and another

at the dead body beneath my feet, exhaling, I turned around and coldly glanced in Matthew's direction. "I'm sure you've

open, raising his hands and pointing towards my direction, trembling he mumbled.

***

Empty.

by the flames

strive for power disappeared right before his eyes. For a brief moment of

in getting stronger? What do I

losing what was once his goal, all that was left was nothing but emptiness. Matthew's purpose for strength was gone

of the Monolith,

during the battle arena matches he almost came close to losing

felt empty, alone,

to just give up

up at one point. However, just when he was about to lose for good, a hand reached out

Xavier Pearce.

name of the person who gave him a second

inside of his head, Matthew

his old naive

after he had gone through a reformation that he realized how naive and stupid he was back

Matthew grew at an astonishing rate. During the period he was under Xavier, not

no

He couldn't care less about Everblood even

want to dwell in the past. He just wanted to

...Or so he thought.

"H-how?"

the half-burned person standing before him, Matthew's hand trembled

"Yo—"

"Ezra!!"

as she watched her companion, Ezra, die

"How dare you!"

Alisa raised her sword and dashed in

no! What

he stared at Alisa. She

"It's too late."

—Click!

was

subtle clicking sound rang out, and a body fell on

happened

Too fast.

point that it was almost impossible for him to keep up. Gazing

Alisa, Ren slowly turned

you've already figured

'That familiar voice.'

to make the connection until just

was a voice that he was all too

forcefully calmed himself down. After that, opening his eyes,

you supposed to be

than an explosion of that

a couple of meters away from him, Ren

"Is that so?"

"Yeah."