The Author's POV

"We've come a long way, everyone…"

Jezebeth stared at the sea of demons that stood before him. They numbered in the millions, and they all looked at him with fervent eyes.

The sight made Jezebeth smile.

'Who'd have thought that our race, which was on the verge of extinction a few centuries ago, is now the most dominant of all races.'

The sight…

It moved him, and the smile on his face deepened if ever so slightly.

"A lot of you are probably confused… perhaps even annoyed by the sudden orders, but I want to make something clear."

Jezebeth paused and looked down at all of the demons present.

"The order… It was something that I had passed down. It was a decision that I made, and not something that was made on the fly."

Jezebeth's soft vice traveled through the ears of each of the demons present.

It gently vibrated within their minds, and almost seemed to bewitch some of the demons as their eyes turned hazy and their bodies swayed.

"If you are dissatisfied with the orders, you can voice out your complaints now. I'm all ears."

Jezebeth stopped and looked at the army of demons in front of him. He waited for someone to speak up, but none dared.

The place was incredibly quiet, and all the demons looked at him with the same eyes as before.

"So it seems like no one here is dissatisfied…"

He didn't know whether to be happy or disappointed with this news.

He would've loved to have seen a few demons oppose him. Show him that they were different from the others, but he was disappointed to know that such demons didn't exist.

'I expected too much.'

Hiding his disappointment, Jezebeth raised his head up and looked at the demons in front of him once more.

"Now that I got out of the way, I am happy to announce that the war is officially over," Jezebeth continued before the other demons could cheer, "but! ..and I mean but! The real war hasn't even started yet so don't be too quick to rejoice."

As if pouring cold water on them, all of the demons that were previously showing excited expressions revealed disappointed ones.

Jezebeth continued.

"What we have dealt with at the moment is merely a taste. A taste of the true war that is about to come to us…"

What everyone had currently experienced was merely the prelude to the true war that was about to come.

Their forces were strong, and Jezebeth was confident in his chances of victory, but… that was before he came to learn of Kevin's action.

At the moment, he was uncertain.

He was uncertain about the imminent future.

What he previously thought was certain was no longer certain, and at the moment, all preparations seemed for naught.

That being said, there was actually one certainty… And that this was truly the last regression.

Having collected all of the Akashic fragments, he was certain and knew that whoever won between the two of them would be the ultimate winner.

With the Protectors gone, there was nothing stopping him from getting to the records.

fact, there was

who held the key

someone who he was very familiar with, and the one

was the only person to have ever beaten him, and probably

anymore now that Kevin has

his core palpitate, and his gaze shifted toward his right. He felt himself relax, and his face

I'm not completely

a little something that

We will soon

of demons in front of him and turned

whether we will be the only race that exists

***

planning on

office. It was just the two of us at the moment, and he looked at me with a look

"I'm not crazy."

"Like hell, you aren't."

"That's kind of rude."

truth

"Oh yeah, it does."

"Then you're delusional."

you go being rude again… Is this how you treat your

went on between Octavious and me for

I had lost count.

know best that I'm making

from, I still don't think my choice was

stopped to think about it, it was obvious that this made perfect sense, and I had no doubt that Octavious was aware of this on some

That being said…

really can't get used to

was completely at

more emotion than he ever had in the past, and some of the things

the old Octavious

incredibly rational and never let his emotions get the

current Octavious, who appeared to be on an emotional high, if one could

but in situations like these… it's

toward you in the near future? Do you realize that the majority of people will

moment and listen

a sigh and pinched the middle of

reached his ears,

I continued.

will not be forcing

stated this to Maylin and

I'm not going to do that, I'm confident that there won't be any protests... and if it turns out that some do exist, I'll have to reevaluate my perspective on where

would be that

than anyone that a war is about to come, and what I am doing is merely providing them with a safe haven to help them avoid this

that I didn't want them to be a burden on me, but I kept

them be, and if they were in danger, I would place them at the bottom of my priority list of the things that I needed to care

couldn't allow them to become a

"Okay, I get it."

of me, calming

expression returned to normal for the first time

a bit of an overstatement since this was supposed to be his

"Alright."

sight. Rubbing his chin, he leaned back on

we're going to do

"How much?"

"As in cores."

"Oh."