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

prideful as Octavios to say such a thing, it meant that it

"Are you serious?"

with the

"But—"

Daphne cut Monica off.

other heads all unanimously voted for 876 to be eliminated. In the end, he

day, 876 did not show them enough promise to make them go to war with

a high ranker, they may have done something, but in the

was not worth mentioning by the likes of them.

no, no, it's because I know

Daphne, Monica cried out

Ren was truly 876, Monica knew that if he really held a grudge against them, things wouldn't really turn out as

she expected him to, then the Monolith would be the last thing the Union should

don't escalate to that

inwardly prayed inside of her

Monica wasn't sure whose side she

***

long bray beard and turbid

—Shua!

of thin air, was an elegant young man with

the

"Leader, you have returned."

"Mhm."

who just entered, Malik AlShayatin casually swept the room with his eyes

of thin air. Then, after a couple of seconds, a cold and indifferent voice that seemed to come from the deepest parts of hell rang out from the

you done? Have they

not." Curtly replied Malik AlShayatin. "The Union accepted our truce

[A pity.]

of disappointment could be felt from

slightly, Malik

royal highness, is there anything you would like for me

for now. Make sure you don't get into any conflicts for at least a couple of years. Your recent failure has caused quite

killing intent could be felt from the words of the individual

room could feel this, as the void before them twisted strangely, and a tangible wave of bloodlust swept

his head slightly,

for the

understand. For now, do as I said and lay

"Understood."

hope you don't disappoint me

in

and the void before them shrank, after a brief moment of silence, the first to speak was

do we do

at the place where the black void used to be

the demons have ordered, and lay

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

take their truce as a sign of weakness and have them attack the Monolith. This would've been the perfect chance to ambush them and get rid

did not bite the

"A pity."

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

how are your

"My injuries?"

"Mhm."

for a bit,

couple of high-leveled potions, they are not that severe right now. If the Union had gone and attacked us, we could've

the truce. Had they not agreed, the

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 the Union

truly

"I see.."

left. Staring at his expressionless face from

***

2 P.M.

Caissa headquarters.

After a while, I looked up towards

do

off of the papers in front of him, Smallsnake

"Around 10 million, why?"

million? Since when did we have so much

honestly

thought that there would've been

these eight months that you were gone?" Smallsnake rolled his eyes. "Let's exclude Angelica who did pretty much all of the major tasks, but I've been using the information that you had given to me before

"Information?"

tilted my head in

told me regarding where to

"Ah, that."

finally

rise in stock in the future, but

was mainly due to the fact that I no longer relied on the

things were changing, I stopped relying

on my

with both hands, Smallsnake looked at it and asked. "What is

sell it and give me the money. The 10 million you

widened in

Did you

you to sell this stuff