The Author's POV

Crunch—!

The crunching sound of an apple being bitten rang out.

The juices from the apple trickled down the hand of a young man whose deep blue eyes reflected the burning fire opposite him.

Crunch—!

The youth took another bite of the apple with a cold and apathetic look.

—Rustle! —Rustle!

Suddenly, a rustling sound arose, and four shadows silently materialized from all sides of the youth.

"..."

Despite being surrounded by all sides, the youth kept his head lowered and continued to eat his apple.

Seemingly unbothered by their presence.

Before long, a male with fair skin and green eyes appeared from the other side of the youth.

Outwardly he looked like a perfect gentleman, as he had a kind smile on his face.

"Enjoying your meal?"

He asked.

"..."

He was met with dead silence.

Shrugging his shoulders, Xavier sat on a rock opposite Ren.

Looking at Ren from top to bottom, an amused look appeared on his face.

"Is that how you look without the scars, 876? Not bad, you look a lot better than before."

Crunch—!

Once again Ren took a bite of the apple.

Completely disregarding Xavier's presence.

Not minding Ren's attitude, Xavier continued.

"...If you remember, we've previously met once before. Back in the Monolit—"

"One broken hand, a punch in the stomach, two broken shoulders..."

Cutting Xavier off, opening his mouth, Ren softly mumbled.

"Hm?"

Xavier's brows knit.

"Have you gone crazy during the time that you left the Monolith?"

As he said that, wariness crept into Xavier's heart.

Things were odd.

After spending so many months trying to catch 876, once they were able to finally catch up to him, he seemed completely unbothered.

Almost as though he had been expecting their arrival.

But that was impossible.

He was only one person.

How could it be possible for him to find out about their arrival?

Furthermore, they had already checked the surroundings thoroughly; apart from him, there should be no one else.

Glancing towards the four black-clad people, Xavier nudged them with his head. Instantly they approached Ren.

Standing up, Xavier's eyes flashed coldly.

"What a pity. Although I was ordered to bring you back alive, I would'v—"

Opening his mouth, Ren once again disrupted Xavier mid-speech.

"...Those were the injuries I sustained during our first meeting."

Lifting his head up and staring at Xavier directly in the eyes, Ren casually threw the apple in his hand to the side.

"It's time for me to pay you back for what you've done to me."

Frowning, terrifying pressure suddenly sprang out from Xavier's body.

"What are you talking about? Have you gone insane?"

dagger materializing in his

—Thud!

Ren, the faint sound of something falling on the ground

head, Xavier's eyes

"——!"

shocked look appeared on

of the shadows that had previously surrounded Ren, was a stunning beauty with fair skin and long black

glanced at the other three

flame suddenly appeared in her hand, causing

"A demon!? ...Impossible!"

He muttered in shock.

at Angelica, Ren finally

mouth, Ren's cold voice echoed inside of

say? Today I'm definitely going to pay you

faded, rustling sounds could be heard throughout the area as three pairs of bloodthirsty

—Rustle! —Rustle!

"...I see. "

finally realizing what was happening, Xavier closed his

your trap 876...who would've thought that you'd be resourceful enough to get a count ranked demon to work

that he wanted to ask, such as why a demon was helping him and how

he would only

his three other members, Xavier nudged them

Angelica's direction, completely disregarding Ren

in his hand, Xavier's hand fiercely shot out, ruthlessly aiming for

strongest individual first before taking care of

"Nope."

voice suddenly

the nearby bushes was Hein, who quickly blocked the path of one of the

one of the weakest of

—Clang!

of the two intense forces directly shaved a layer off the grass surfaced forest. Some of

"Grrr..."

as they quickly dashed forward and helped suppress one of the black

on, Ren did not

body shot forward, and he soon appeared in front of the two

wind psyons,

sleeves fluttered wildly due to the tremendous speed, creating a paper like sound. Ren's fist then violently shot

sharp noise of the wind breaking behind him caused the

it

—Bang!

"U...ugh!"

the forest, which

couple of steps back, the black silhouette was forced

before him was not someone he could take

—Swooosh!

on his

back a couple of steps as he

sword, a white glow sprang out from his body as a subtle clicking sound soon rang

—Click!

the

enveloped the area within a second that the glow appeared. Not long after, a body fell onto

gaping hole appeared by

a ranked individual

all happened

"Im...impossible!"

dismay, he was already dead. To make matters worse, he wasn't able to see how his

foot on the ground and dashing backwards, he quickly took out a small communication device and tried to get

"Emergency, emergency, we—"

"It's no use."

on the same spot as before, Ren calmly stared at the black-clad individual

and taking the dimensional space off of the black-clad individual he had

devices will not function within this

people that had improved during

been

quite figure out the chip, he learned a lot of new things. One such thing was that he could now hack through different communications devices and block any

the protection of Leopold, Ryan and Smallsnake were currently not so far from here, trying their best to help through the aid of the drones

Monolith to find out the fact that he had companions

information they knew, the bigger his advantage

fighting abilities were above Hein's and Ava's, someone needed to watch

powerless

"...shit!"

the black-clad

denial is not a good

of the black-clad individual's panic, Ren's toes gently pressed

and reappeared in front of the black-clad individual, completely catching him

a green hue shrouded Ren's fist, directly smashing towards the abdomen area of the black-clad

—Bam!

"Pu...chi!"

extremely fast, the black-clad individual violently threw up a mouthful

fell onto

—Thud!

"..."

indifferently. Then, turning his head, he looked towards Angelica's direction to see how

—Boooom!

the distance, an explosion rang out, and