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.

I could see no gap in

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

need to

of

for backup, then the situation would

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

of the sword, slowly unsheathing the sword, a subtle clicking sound rang inside of

—Click!

of the [Keiki style] :

the male individual standing in front of Matthew. With my sword unsheathed, I stabbed

—Spurt!

appearance was so unexpected that he had no time to react before

"Huek!"

If one looked

the

she quickly dashed

direction. His face was incomparably

movement of the

—Click!

again a subtle clicking sound rang in the room and

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

hands and pointing

***

Empty.

Ren getting engulfed by the flames on live television, that

power disappeared right

getting stronger?

was nothing but emptiness. Matthew's purpose for strength was gone and what replaced it

him all alone inside of the Monolith,

mental state became apparent when during the battle arena matches he almost came close to

felt empty, alone, and

wanted to just

given up at one point. However, just when he was about to lose

Xavier Pearce.

was the name of the person who gave

of his head, Matthew managed to

finally shed his old naive self whose only purpose for

a reformation that he

at an astonishing rate. During the period he was under Xavier, not once had he seen

he no longer

Matthew did whatever he could to survive. He couldn't care less about Everblood even though he was his

did he want to dwell in

...Or so he thought.

"H-how?"

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

"Yo—"

"Ezra!!"

was Alisa who screamed as she watched her companion,

"How dare you!"

at Ren, Alisa raised her sword and dashed in

What are

out of his thoughts, Matthew shouted as he stared at Alisa. She was no

"It's too late."

—Click!

was too

clicking sound rang out, and a

happened in

Too fast.

to keep up. Gazing at Alisa's lifeless body on the ground,

Alisa, Ren slowly

you've already figured everything

'That familiar voice.'

make the connection until just

was a voice that he was all too familiar

that, opening his eyes,

supposed

more than an explosion

meters away from

"Is that so?"

"Yeah."