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.

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"What are you talking about? Have you gone insane?"

With a dagger materializing in his hand, Xavier raised it.

—Thud!

However, just as he was about to attack Ren, the faint sound of something falling on the ground resounded.

Turning his head, Xavier's eyes opened wide.

"——!"

A shocked look appeared on his face.

Standing behind one of the shadows that had previously surrounded Ren, was a stunning beauty with fair skin and long black hair.

With two horns on her head, Angelica casually glanced at the other three remaining shadows before raising her hand.

A black flame suddenly appeared in her hand, causing Xavier's face to pale slightly.

"A demon!? ...Impossible!"

He muttered in shock.

Staring at Angelica, Ren finally stood up.

Opening his mouth, Ren's cold voice echoed inside of Xavier's ears.

"What did I say? Today I'm definitely going to pay you back for what you've done."

As his words faded, rustling sounds could be heard throughout the area as three pairs of bloodthirsty red eyes suddenly appeared in the nearby bushes.

—Rustle! —Rustle!

"...I see. "

After spotting the three wolves and finally realizing what was happening, Xavier closed his eyes.

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

Xavier had many questions that he wanted to ask, such as why a demon was helping him and how he had known that they were coming, but he did not voice them.

He knew that he would only be met with deathly silence.

Staring at his three other members, Xavier nudged them with his head.

Instantly, they dashed towards Angelica's direction, completely disregarding Ren and the three wolves.

With a dagger in his hand, Xavier's hand fiercely shot out, ruthlessly aiming for Angelica's head.

His goal was clear, take out the strongest individual first before taking care of the rest.

"Nope."

A voice suddenly rang out.

Coming out from the nearby bushes was Hein, who quickly blocked the path of one of the black-clad individuals.

He was one of the weakest of the black-clad individuals.

—Clang!

The smashing of the two intense forces directly shaved a layer off the grass surfaced forest. Some of the weaker tree trunks directly broke apart.

"Grrr..."

Following this, the wolves finally made their moves as they quickly dashed forward and helped suppress one of the black silhouettes.

Whilst this was going on, Ren did not stand idle.

With his toes touching the ground, his body shot forward, and he soon appeared in front of the two other black silhouettes.

Coating his fist with wind psyons, Ren punched out.

As he punched out, 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 carried emitted a sharp whistle of wind splitting.

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

This seemingly simple punch contained such force that it made the black-silhouette instinctively want to avoid it.

—Bang!

"U...ugh!"

A clear sound echoed throughout the forest, which was soon followed by a groan.

Taking a couple of steps back, the black silhouette was forced to divert his attention away from Angelica.

The youth before him was not someone he could take lightly.

—Swooosh!

Just as Ren's body stabilized, a sharp wind flashed toward him. With a calm expression on his face, Ren forcefully twisted his body and narrowly dodged the sharp tip of a blade.

His body shot back a couple of steps as he expressionlessly stared at the blade.

Placing his hand on the sheath of his sword, a white glow sprang out from his body as a subtle clicking sound soon rang out.

—Click!

The first movement of the [Keiki style] : Quick flash

A white light enveloped the area within a second that the glow appeared. Not long after, a body fell onto the ground.

A huge gaping hole appeared by his head.

Just like that, a <C> ranked individual had died.

This all happened in seconds.

"Im...impossible!"

Just when the other black-clad 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 how his partner had died.

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

"Emergency, emergency, we—"

"It's no use."

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

Bending down and taking the dimensional space off of the black-clad individual he had just killed, he softly said.

"All your devices will not function within this radius."

Hein and Ava were not the only people that had improved during these past four months.

Ryan had also been hard at work.

Although he 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 different communications devices and block any transmission from going out.

Under the protection of Leopold, Ryan and Smallsnake were currently not so far from here, trying their best to help through the aid of the drones in the sky and through blocking all forms of communication.

This was extremely important since Ren did not want the Monolith to find out the fact that he had companions working for him.

The less information they knew, the bigger his advantage in the long run.

Furthermore, although Leopold's fighting abilities were above Hein's and Ava's, someone needed to watch out for their safety.

They were powerless after all.

"...shit!"

Listening to Ren's words, the black-clad individual's face turned aghast.

"Being in denial is not a good thing."

Taking advantage of the black-clad individual's panic, Ren's toes gently pressed onto the ground.

Soon, his body disappeared and reappeared in front of the black-clad individual, completely catching him off-guard.

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

—Bam!

"Pu...chi!"

Helpless against the attack that came unexpectantly and extremely fast, the black-clad individual violently threw up a mouthful of fresh blood.

Subsequently, he feebly fell onto the ground.

—Thud!

"..."

Apathetically watching the 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 was faring.

—Boooom!

In the distance, an explosion rang out, and two figures shot back.

On one side was Angelica, who was wholly unscathed, whilst on the other was Xavier, who was breathing heavily with torn clothes.

"haaa...haaa..."

Glaring at Angelica, who was standing opposite of him, Xavier shouted.

"Why are you helping a human! You're a demon; we're on the same side!"

The Monolith was an association that directly worked for the demons.

Never did Xavier expect a demon to work with 876.

Listening to Xavier's words, a disgusted look appeared on Angelica

"Don't lump me on the same side as you guys."

The black coloured flames around her exquisite body intensified following Angelica's words.

A savage black flame violently surged forth from her body in the blink of an eye. The black flame gradually spiralled upwards, finally forming an enormous pillar of black that shot towards the sky.

The intense heat caused by the flames caused the nearby trees and vegetation to turn into ash.

Waving her hand, the enormous pillar of flames shot towards Xavier, who was standing opposite to her.

"Disappear from this world."

"Shit!"

Staring at the incoming flames, Xavier clenched his jaw tightly and cursed out loud.

Despite of the fact that he and Angelica were of the same rank, their strengths were nowhere near similar.

That was for one simple reason.

Angelica was a pure demon whilst he was only someone who borrowed the power of a demon.

Simply put, her count rank bloodline was enough to suppress the little demon bloodline Xavier had in his body due to the consumption of the devil fruits.

This was also why demons never worried about the Monolith or their contractees betraying them.

Their bloodline suppression was enough to completely put them in their place.

Unless another demon of a similar rank showed up, no one could stop her.

Had Xavier been a regular human, he would've been able to go toe to toe with her, perhaps even overpower her.

But, he no longer was.

"Damn it!"

Crying out, Xavier suddenly raised his dagger.

His mana surged out, and a blue hue suddenly enveloped his dagger. A blue pillar with faint black threads of demonic energy curling around it rose in the air.

Xavier's clothes fluttered wildly.

Staring at the incoming flames, Xavier knew that he had to go all out or he was done for.

"Haaaa!"

Once Xavier gathered enough mana, letting out a desperate cry, he slashed forward with all of his might as a faint thunder noise suddenly sounded.

Soon, the two attacks collided, and deathly silence shrouded the forest.

The silence continued for a few minutes as the two energies clashed in the sky. Seemingly at a stalemate.

However, the stalemate did not last for a long as both energies soon seemed to have exhausted their strength as they slowly died down and converged together into a small black and blue ball in the air.

With her brows knit, Angelica stared at the ball in the distance. Then, raising her fair hand, she suddenly clenched it into a fist.

"Break."

—Bang!

As her words faded, an explosive blast echoed throughout the mountain range.

"Pu...chi!"

—Bang!

Spitting a mouthful of blood, Xavier helplessly fell back and collided back first against a tree. The explosion contained both his and Angelica's energies combined.

The fact that he had still not died was a miracle in itself.

"Huak!"

Once Xavier's body smashed against the tree, he once again spat another mouthful of blood. Then, with one hand on the ground, trying to support his body, Xavier saw the shadow of two feet appear before him.

"Kh..."

With a ghastly pale face, he looked up. There, coldly looking at him from above, was Ren.

Bending down, Ren grabbed Xavier by the head.

"...I told you, didn't I?"

Leaning his head forward, he whispered.

"I told you that I would make you pay for what you did to me."

—Kraka!

Putting his hand on Xavier's shoulder, the sound of bones breaking rang out.

"That's the first shoulder..."

Another chapter in about an hour or two.