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 their

standing more than ten meters away from me. This was outside of the range of the third movement, thus I couldn't one-shot

need to take

of

backup, then the situation would

normal gates, it

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

—Click!

third movement of the [Keiki style] :

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

—Spurt!

had no time to react before the sword

"Huek!"

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

Shouted the

her weapon, she quickly dashed

What are you doing!?" Matthew shouted as he watched Alisa dash in my direction. His face was incomparably white. Almost as though he had seen a ghost. Apathetically

movement of the [Keiki style] : Quick

—Click!

again a subtle clicking sound rang in

body beneath my feet, exhaling, I turned around and coldly glanced in Matthew's direction. "I'm sure you've already figured everything out,

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

***

Empty.

at Ren getting engulfed by the flames on live television, that was how Matthew

right

dead, what's the point in getting stronger? What

his goal, all that was left was nothing but emptiness. Matthew's purpose for strength was gone and what replaced it was

alone inside of the Monolith, scraping for merit points by risking his life every

during the battle arena matches he almost came close to losing on multiple

empty, alone, and

wanted to just give up

when he was about to lose

Xavier Pearce.

the person who gave

his broken self and instilling new ideas and ideals inside of his

his old

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

grew at an astonishing rate. During the period

he no longer

He

longer did he want to

...Or so he thought.

"H-how?"

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

"Yo—"

"Ezra!!"

who screamed as she watched her companion, Ezra, die

"How dare you!"

Alisa raised her

no! What

Matthew shouted as he

"It's too late."

—Click!

it was too

clicking sound rang out, and a body fell on

happened in

Too fast.

that it was almost impossible for him to keep up. Gazing at Alisa's lifeless body on the ground, Matthew lifted

Alisa, Ren slowly turned

already figured everything out,

'That familiar voice.'

to make the

he was all too familiar

eyes, Matthew forcefully calmed himself down. After that, opening his eyes, he calmly looked at Ren before

supposed

an explosion of that degree

away from him,

"Is that so?"

"Yeah."