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!

the faint sound

Xavier's eyes

"——!"

look appeared on

that had previously surrounded Ren, was a stunning beauty with fair skin and long

head, Angelica casually glanced at the other three remaining shadows before raising

flame suddenly appeared in her hand, causing

"A demon!? ...Impossible!"

He muttered in shock.

Ren

voice

did I say? Today I'm definitely going to pay you

faded, rustling sounds could be heard throughout the area as three pairs of bloodthirsty red eyes suddenly appeared in

—Rustle! —Rustle!

"...I see. "

finally realizing what

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

such as why a demon was helping him and how he

that he would only be

at his three other members, Xavier nudged them with his

towards Angelica's direction, completely disregarding

in his hand, Xavier's hand fiercely shot

take out the strongest individual first before taking

"Nope."

voice suddenly rang

quickly blocked the path of one of

one of the weakest of the black-clad

—Clang!

a layer off the grass surfaced forest. Some of the weaker tree trunks directly broke

"Grrr..."

moves as they quickly dashed forward and helped suppress one

on,

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

his fist with wind psyons, Ren punched

Ren's sleeves fluttered wildly due to the tremendous speed, creating a paper like sound. Ren's fist then violently shot forward. Within the short distance, the intense force that the fist

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

seemingly simple punch contained such force that it

—Bang!

"U...ugh!"

echoed throughout the forest, which was soon followed by a

the black silhouette was forced to divert his attention

him was not someone he could

—Swooosh!

a calm expression on his face, Ren forcefully twisted his body and narrowly dodged the sharp

couple of steps as he

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

—Click!

movement of the [Keiki style] :

white light enveloped the area within a second that the glow appeared. Not long after, a

gaping hole appeared by

like that, a

all happened in

"Im...impossible!"

individual was about to support his partner, to his utter dismay, he was already dead. To make matters worse, he wasn't able to see

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

"Emergency, emergency, we—"

"It's no use."

calmly stared at the black-clad individual in front of

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

devices will not function within

the only people that had improved during these past

been

the chip, he learned a lot of new things. One such thing was that

currently not so far from here, trying their best to help through the aid of the drones in

the Monolith to find out the fact that he had companions working

the bigger his advantage in

Hein's and Ava's, someone needed to watch out for

were powerless after

"...shit!"

to Ren's words, the

denial is not a good

panic, Ren's toes gently pressed onto the

body disappeared 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!"

the attack that came unexpectantly and extremely fast, the black-clad individual violently threw up a

fell onto

—Thud!

"..."

ground, Ren simply wiped his hand indifferently. Then, turning his head,

—Boooom!

explosion rang out, and two