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.

standing, I could see

standing more than ten meters away from me. This was outside of the

need to take

was of

called for backup, then the situation would truly start to become

it wouldn't hinder my plans as they would think that I was going for the normal gates, it would reduce the chances of me

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

—Click!

third movement of the [Keiki style]

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

—Spurt!

no time

"Huek!"

floor, and a body fell on the ground. If one looked carefully, they'd see a small

the female

quickly dashed in

watched Alisa dash in my direction. His face was incomparably white. Almost as though he had seen a ghost. Apathetically glancing at Matthew,

of the [Keiki style]

—Click!

a subtle clicking sound rang in the room

Staring at the dead body beneath my feet, exhaling, I turned around and coldly glanced in

With his eyes wide open, raising his hands and

***

Empty.

at Ren getting engulfed by the flames on

one source of motivation and goal to strive for power disappeared right before his eyes. For a brief moment of time, Matthew's world

in getting stronger? What do I do? What am

but emptiness. Matthew's purpose for strength

inside of the Monolith, scraping for merit points

battle arena matches he

felt empty, alone, and

wanted to just give up and

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

Xavier Pearce.

name of the person who gave him

and ideals inside of his head, Matthew

took a while, he had finally shed his old naive self

after he had gone through a reformation that he realized how

astonishing rate. During the period he

he no

to survive. He couldn't care

had new goals and ambitions, no longer did he want to

...Or so he thought.

"H-how?"

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

"Yo—"

"Ezra!!"

off was Alisa who screamed as she watched

"How dare you!"

her

What are you

of his thoughts, Matthew shouted as he stared

"It's too late."

—Click!

was

sound rang out, and a body fell on

all happened in a

Too fast.

to the point that it was almost impossible for him to keep up. Gazing at Alisa's

Alisa, Ren slowly

you've already figured everything

'That familiar voice.'

out his opponent, Matthew was unable to make the connection until just now. The sword

that he was

After that, opening

supposed

take much more than an explosion of that

away

"Is that so?"

"Yeah."