The Author's POV

Caissa headquarters.

"Everything is going as Ren has predicted."

Ryan mumbled something under his breath as he bit his nails and studied the monitors that were situated in front of him. Ava was standing next to him at the time, and she gave a slight nod as a bird perched on her arm.

"In approximately one week, the forces of the Monolith will make their way to Ashton city. As Ren had predicted, they began their assault on us by first destroying the four cities at the edge of the human domain. They will almost certainly make a brief stop on the outskirts of the city before attempting to breach the city's defenses."

"I agree…"

Ryan kept gnawing on his fingernails as he moved the pointer of his mouse around the screen and gazed at the deserted streets of Ashton city. In particular, his gaze was drawn toward a few distinct buildings, and he turned his head to inquire about something.

"Have you already set everything up?"

"Yes. Everything has been arranged. All we have to do is wait for Ren to give us the go ahead before moving."

"How long do you think that will take?"

"Probably two more months."

Ava truthfully answered.

"He did mention in advance that he would be extremely busy over the course of the next three months. One month has already passed, and there are still two more months to go. Because Angelica is not here with us either, we are unable to proceed with our plans just yet."

"So are we just going to stay here and do nothing while the Monolith attacks next week?"

Leopold's voice could be heard as he walked into the monitor room with his daughter Sophia following closely behind.

She waved her hand lightly at the two, who waved back at her.

All of the members' families were escorted to the headquarters in order to ensure their own personal safety.

Hein's parents and siblings, Ava's family, Ryan's mom, Leopold's daughter, and so on…

This place had basically become the home of all the members' families. Fortunately, the warehouse was big enough to house everyone without any problems.

"Yes, for now, that is."

Ryan replied to Leopold without looking at him. He had already seen him coming a few seconds ago so he wasn't exactly surprised.

we supposed to do

the back of the room. Ava, staring at him, turned to

he finishes whatever he's doing, we won't have time to spend with our families

head down to gaze at his daughter. In the end,

then I will

***

Within a dark void.

Swoosh—! Swooosh—!

be seen practicing a series of sword moves as his sword danced through

Swooosh—! Swoooosh—!

with each new set of moves he

by a number of chains, and it just stood there and

silence

considerable amount of time until finally, Ren stopped what he was doing

you think? This is what

"…"

at Ren without uttering a

he sat down on the ground and dropped the sword beside him,

hand, a green book appeared

more move sets one executes, the more precise and potent their

eyes continued to move slowly over the pages of the book he was holding

book and picked up a new one to

hand, a new colored book

a sword art that primarily thrives on perfecting the human body in order to release the latent and raw power that is within the muscles of the human body. The harsher the conditions that their bodies undertake, the more powerful they will

description of the two sword arts, he eventually set that book aside and took

"The Keiki style…"

laughing and tossed it to the side of the room. He cocked his head back and looked up

would be such

slowly turned his head to the side and looked at his

decided to practice over here, and yet, not once did I

His feet eventually came to a stop

over here, instead of outside? It's very obvious that training outside of here would be more

Ren continued to stare emotionlessly at the space. His face looked completely dead,

to mind

to train here is

his head forward and whispered

able to create a new sword art and reach