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 hand,

—Thud!

as he was about to attack Ren, the faint sound of something

Xavier's

"——!"

look appeared on his

the shadows that had previously surrounded Ren, was a stunning beauty with fair

at the other three remaining shadows before raising

flame suddenly appeared in her hand, causing Xavier's face to pale

"A demon!? ...Impossible!"

He muttered in shock.

at Angelica, Ren finally

his mouth, Ren's cold voice echoed inside of

say? Today I'm definitely going

the area as three pairs of bloodthirsty red

—Rustle! —Rustle!

"...I see. "

three wolves and finally realizing what was

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

ask, such as why a demon was helping him and how he had known that they were

only be met with deathly

three other members, Xavier nudged them

they dashed towards Angelica's direction, completely disregarding Ren and the three

dagger in his hand, Xavier's hand fiercely shot out, ruthlessly

the strongest individual

"Nope."

suddenly rang

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

was one of the

—Clang!

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

"Grrr..."

made their moves as they quickly dashed forward and helped

going on,

toes touching the ground, his body shot forward, and he soon appeared in front of the two

wind psyons, Ren

fist then violently shot forward. Within the short distance, the intense force that the fist

of the wind breaking behind him caused the black silhouette's face to

such force that it made the black-silhouette instinctively want to avoid

—Bang!

"U...ugh!"

clear sound echoed throughout the forest, which was soon

couple of steps back, the black silhouette was forced

youth before him was not someone

—Swooosh!

sharp wind flashed toward him. With a calm expression on

back a couple of steps as he expressionlessly stared at the

glow sprang out from his body as a subtle clicking sound soon

—Click!

of the [Keiki style]

enveloped the area within a second that the glow appeared. Not long

huge gaping hole appeared

ranked individual

all happened

"Im...impossible!"

his utter dismay, he was already dead. To make

dashing backwards, he quickly took out a small communication device and tried to

"Emergency, emergency, we—"

"It's no use."

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

off of the black-clad individual he had

devices will not

people that had

been hard at

out the chip, he learned a lot of new things. One such thing was that he could now hack through different communications

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 in the sky and through blocking all forms of

was extremely important since Ren did not want the Monolith to find out the fact that he

bigger

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

powerless after

"...shit!"

to Ren's words, the black-clad

is not

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

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

hue shrouded Ren's fist, directly smashing towards the abdomen area of

—Bam!

"Pu...chi!"

that came unexpectantly and extremely fast, the black-clad individual

feebly fell onto the

—Thud!

"..."

to the ground, Ren simply wiped his hand indifferently. Then, turning his head, he looked towards Angelica's direction to see how she

—Boooom!

the distance, an explosion rang