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..."

breath of cold

Octavios to say such a thing,

"Are you serious?"

them. Furthermore, with the demons behind them, the war would only

"But—"

Daphne cut Monica off.

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

them enough promise to make them go to war

ranker, they may have done something, but in the end, 876 was a

that was not worth mentioning by the likes of them. ranked

no, no, it's because I know

to Daphne, Monica cried out inside of

he really held a grudge against them,

the Monolith would be the last thing the Union

hope things don't escalate to

lips, Monica inwardly prayed inside

wasn't

***

with a long bray beard and turbid grey eyes sat crossed legs. The

—Shua!

appearing from out of thin air, was an elegant young man with long black hair

the old man

"Leader, you have returned."

"Mhm."

Mo Jinhao a casual nod, the man who just entered, Malik AlShayatin casually

seconds, a cold

you done? Have

Malik AlShayatin. "The Union accepted our

[A pity.]

be felt from the

slightly,

you would like

any conflicts for at least a couple of years. Your recent failure

the words of the

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

slightly, Malik AlShayatin

for the

you understand. For now, do as I said

"Understood."

don't disappoint me

in

completely disappeared and the void before them shrank, after a brief moment of silence,

what do we

gazed at the place where the black void

the demons have ordered, and lay low for

incident where multiple ranks and below died, resulted

directly take their truce as a sign of weakness and have them attack the Monolith.

did not

"A pity."

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

how

"My injuries?"

"Mhm."

bit,

now. If the Union had gone and attacked

in deciding to agree to the truce. Had they not agreed,

injuries not being that serious anymore, they could've easily have been able to overpower the five heads of the Union without suffering

was truly a

"I see.."

Staring at his expressionless face from behind,

***

2 P.M.

Caissa headquarters.

a while, I looked up towards Smallsnake who was sitting

do we

eyes off of the papers in

"Around 10 million, why?"

when did we

amount honestly surprised

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 to make quite a bit of

"Information?"

my head in

one you told me regarding where to invest and

"Ah, that."

it finally

Smallsnake a list of companies that would rise in stock in the future, but I had long forgotten about

mainly due to the fact

that too many things were changing, I stopped relying

Crossing my arms, I tapped on my

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

sell it and give me the money. The 10

eyes widened

on. Did you just

want you to sell