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, Xavier raised

—Thud!

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

his head, Xavier's eyes opened

"——!"

look appeared

surrounded Ren, was a stunning beauty with fair skin and

her head, Angelica casually glanced at the other

flame suddenly appeared in her

"A demon!? ...Impossible!"

He muttered in shock.

Angelica, Ren finally

Ren's cold voice echoed inside

definitely going to pay you back for

heard throughout the area as three pairs of bloodthirsty red eyes

—Rustle! —Rustle!

"...I see. "

realizing what was happening, Xavier closed

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

such as why a demon was helping him and how he had known that they were coming, but he did not

that he would only

his three other members,

dashed towards Angelica's direction, completely disregarding Ren

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

goal was clear, take out the strongest individual first before taking

"Nope."

suddenly

who quickly

the weakest of the black-clad

—Clang!

directly shaved a layer off the

"Grrr..."

moves as they quickly

on, Ren did not stand

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

fist with wind psyons, Ren

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 carried emitted a sharp whistle of wind

the wind breaking behind him caused the black silhouette's

seemingly simple punch contained such force that it

—Bang!

"U...ugh!"

throughout the forest, which was soon followed by

the black silhouette was forced to divert

before him was not someone he could

—Swooosh!

wind flashed toward him. With a calm expression on his face, Ren forcefully twisted his body and

couple of steps as he expressionlessly stared at

of his sword, a white glow sprang out from his body as a

—Click!

movement of the [Keiki style]

a second that the

hole appeared by his

that, a ranked individual

all happened in

"Im...impossible!"

when the other black-clad individual was about to support his partner, to his utter dismay, he was already

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

"Emergency, emergency, we—"

"It's no use."

the same spot as before, Ren calmly stared at the black-clad individual in front of

the dimensional space off of the black-clad individual

devices will not

were not the only people that had improved during these past four

been hard

still couldn't quite figure out the chip, he learned a lot of new things. One such thing was that he could now hack through

here, trying their best to help through the aid of the drones in the sky and through blocking all forms of

important since Ren did not want the Monolith to find out

less information they knew, the bigger his advantage

were above Hein's and Ava's,

powerless

"...shit!"

words, the black-clad individual's face

in denial is

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

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

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

—Bam!

"Pu...chi!"

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

he feebly fell

—Thud!

"..."

Ren simply wiped his hand indifferently.

—Boooom!

rang out, and