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?"

a dagger materializing in his hand, Xavier raised

—Thud!

he was about to attack Ren, the

Xavier's

"——!"

look appeared on

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

her head, Angelica casually glanced at the other

suddenly appeared in her hand, causing

"A demon!? ...Impossible!"

He muttered in shock.

Ren finally stood

his mouth, Ren's cold voice echoed inside of

going to

be heard throughout the area as three pairs of bloodthirsty red

—Rustle! —Rustle!

"...I see. "

spotting the three wolves and finally realizing what was happening, Xavier closed

for 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 had known that they were

only be

other members,

Angelica's direction, completely disregarding Ren

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

was clear, take out the strongest individual first before taking care of the

"Nope."

suddenly rang

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

was one of the weakest of the black-clad

—Clang!

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

"Grrr..."

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

was going on, Ren did

and he soon appeared in

with wind

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

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

force that it made the black-silhouette

—Bang!

"U...ugh!"

sound echoed throughout the forest, which

black silhouette was forced to divert his attention away from

him was not

—Swooosh!

With a calm expression on his face, Ren forcefully twisted his body and narrowly

back a couple of steps as he expressionlessly stared

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

—Click!

the [Keiki style] : Quick

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

huge gaping hole appeared by his

like that, a ranked

happened

"Im...impossible!"

to his utter dismay, he was already dead. To make

he quickly took out a small communication device and tried to get in contact

"Emergency, emergency, we—"

"It's no use."

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

taking the dimensional space off of the black-clad individual

devices will not function

and Ava were not the only people

been hard

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 transmission from going

Ryan and Smallsnake were currently not so far from here, trying their best to

since Ren did not want the Monolith to find out the fact

knew, the bigger his

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

were powerless

"...shit!"

the black-clad individual's

is

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

in front of the black-clad individual,

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

—Bam!

"Pu...chi!"

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

fell onto the

—Thud!

"..."

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

—Boooom!

rang out, and