The Author's POV

"What the fuck are you guys even thinking!?"

An enraged shout echoed inside of simple office space. Following this, pounding violently on a wooden desk, Monica glared towards the person sitting behind the desk.

"Daphne, just what went through your heads when you decided to sacrifice the person thas singlehandedly saved me, Amon, and the others!"

Monica once again shouted. She was beyond incensed.

Upon being notified by Donna about the bounty on Ren's head, Monica flew into a fit of rage and immediately went towards Daphne's office to get an explanation from her.

"Tell me so that I can understand!"

"Calm down Monica."

Daphne helplessly raised her hand to calm Monica down.

"Calm down my ass. How can I be calm in this situation?"

"Just listen to what I have to say."

Daphne pleaded.

"..."

Without saying anything, Monica stared at Daphne's eyes for a couple of seconds.

"Fine." Crossing her arms, Monica sat down on the seat opposite Daphne and gestured for her to explain. "I really want to know what crossed your minds when you made that decision."

Finally managing to calm Monica down, Daphne breathed a sigh of relief, before leaning back on her chair.

"Where should I begin."

Pondering for a moment, Daphne decided to relay to Monica about everything that went through that meeting. From how they decided to sign a truce, to how they decided to sacrifice 876 for the truce in order to give her and Amon enough time to recuperate.

The more Monica listened to Daphne, the tighter her brows knit.

"This is bullshit!" Eventually, after a while, she stood up and once again smacked the table. "Do you guys not realize that you've wasted a golden opportunity?"

"A golden opportunity?"

"Yes!" Monica cried out."Since they are the ones that proposed the truce, it obviously means that whatever the explosion did, they suffered major losses. If there is a perfect chance to fight back, it is now! Deal a devastating blow to both those demon bastards and the Monolith."

Though Monica wasn't able to fully witness the core explode as she had already left by the time it exploded, what she did witness was the pure destructive power that emanated from the core itself.

It was frightening.

There was no way that they came unscathed from that attack.

Listening to Monica's words, Daphne shook her head.

"If only it was that easy Monica."

"What do you mean?"

"Do you think we don't know about what you've said? We've also thought about attacking them, but there are a couple of problems."

"What problems?"

Monica's face showed obvious signs of distrust.

Not minding this, Daphne explained.

"For one, we don't actually know the extent of the injuries from the Monolith's side. For all we know, the truce could be a trap proposed by them to make us think that they are severely weakened. If it truly was that way and we attack, we'd suffer massive losses."

For the Monolith to be the first one to step back, the Union heads were not naive enough to believe that the Monolith was just openly displaying their weakness.

There was a high chance that they were trying to instigate the Union into attacking them.

"If that is also not enough of a reason, Malik Alshayatin alone is enough..."

Deep apprehension flashed across Daphne's eyes.

Recalling him back at the meeting, although she knew that it was just his clone there, his presence was no joke. He was in his own league.

"Malik Alshayatin? The head of the Monolith."

Listening to Daphne's words, Monica's brows knit.

"Mhm, him."

"What about him?"

Shaking her head, Daphne sighed.

"Haa, you weren't there Monica, but the moment he stepped into the room, all of us could tell one thing." Lifting her head and looking at Monica straight in the eyes, Daphne took a deep breath before continuing. "It was that he was on another level."

"Hm? Another level?"

With deep apprehension in her eyes, Daphne explained.

"Yes. After the meeting ended, Octavious himself confirmed it. He was weaker than him."

"Tsss..."

a breath of cold

such a thing, it meant that it

"Are you serious?"

attacking them. Furthermore, with the demons behind them, the war

"But—"

Daphne cut Monica off.

is done is done. Even though I have voted against the decision, the other heads all unanimously voted for 876 to be

876 did not show them enough promise to make

may have done something, but in the

was not worth mentioning by the

because I know who 876 is that I'm

Monica cried

knew that if he really held a grudge against them, things wouldn't really

the Monolith would be the last

don't escalate

inwardly prayed

way, Monica wasn't sure whose

***

old man with a long bray beard and turbid grey

—Shua!

and appearing from out of thin air, was an

up, the old man

"Leader, you have returned."

"Mhm."

Malik AlShayatin casually swept the room

thin air. Then, after a couple of seconds, a cold and indifferent voice

you done? Have

Curtly replied Malik AlShayatin. "The

[A pity.]

of disappointment could be felt from the voice behind the

body slightly, Malik

highness, is there anything you would like for me to

for now. Make sure you don't get into any conflicts for at least a couple of

of the individual whom Malik AlShayatin referred to as

Jinhao and Malik AlShayatin who were in the same room could feel this, as the void

slightly, Malik AlShayatin

apologize for

that you understand. For now, do as I

"Understood."

hope you don't

in

voice completely disappeared and the void before them shrank, after a brief

what do we do

where the black void used to be and

as the demons have ordered,

The incident where multiple ranks and below died, resulted in a lot of the demons

would be hot-blooded and directly take their truce as a sign of weakness and have them attack the Monolith. This would've been the perfect chance

did not bite the

"A pity."

AlShayatin shook his head in disappointment. Glancing towards Mo Jinhao next to him,

how are your

"My injuries?"

"Mhm."

for a bit, Mo Jinhao

not that severe right now. If the Union had gone and attacked us, we could've done a quick work

Had they not agreed, the only outcome for

both Mo Jinhao and Tasos's injuries not being that serious anymore, they could've easily have been able to overpower the five heads of

truly

"I see.."

eyes flashed before he turned around and left. Staring at his expressionless face from behind,

***

2 P.M.

Caissa headquarters.

a large desk, I flipped through some files. After a while, I looked up towards

money do we have

off of the papers in front of him, Smallsnake

"Around 10 million, why?"

Since when did we have

amount honestly

had originally thought that there would've

did pretty much all of the major tasks, but I've been using the information that you had

"Information?"

tilted my head

you told me regarding where to invest and

"Ah, that."

finally

would rise in stock in the future, but I had long forgotten about

mainly due to the fact that I no longer relied on the plotline like

were changing,

my bracelet and threw something

Catching the object I threw at him with both hands, Smallsnake looked at it and asked. "What

give me the money. The

eyes widened in

Did you just say

you