The Author's POV

Kzzzzzzz— Holding onto a cylindrical glass tube, a faint red glow enveloped my hand. The contents inside of the cylindrical glass tube slowly started to boil. 

"This should do." 

Staring at the gas that was forming in the tube, a satisfied smile appeared on my lips.

Glancing towards my right where one of the guards was dully standing, I removed the mask that was on my face revealing my burned up face. 

"Here put this on." 

Walking next to him, grabbing his hand and raising it towards his face, I gave him the mask. 

"This should do for now."

Staring at the guard who with his right hand was supporting the mask on his face, my lips smacked together. 

Even though he was under the effects of the serum, I couldn't really make him channel mana so this was good enough for now. 

Out of the five individuals, his build was the closest to mine, and so he looked like a perfect mannequin of me. 

Glancing towards my left and right to make sure that everything was perfect, I lay down beneath his feet with my back facing the door. 

'Everything should be ready.'

According to my estimates, within a couple of minutes, a special unit would come to the room. That was the unit designed to hunt me down. 

Just like they wanted me gone, I wanted them gone as well. My goal in killing them was so that I could take their commander's badge.

There were multiple gates at the bottom level, and according to my estimates, they were heavily guarded. 

...but gates had different grades too, with some gates specifically only accessible to those that were of a higher grade. 

Unlike the common gates, they should be less guarded since they required a special badge in order to access, which no one would expect me to have. 

Luring the commander to me was the real goal. He was the true key to my escape. 

By giving such subtle hints and flaws throughout my escape, I wanted to create a scenario where they would see me moving in accordance with their predictions, whilst in reality, I was masking my true intentions. 

They were treating me as though I was a mouse stuck inside of a labyrinth with no escape route when in reality, it was the exact opposite. 

The entire time, the one controlling their moves was me.

If there was no escape route, I just merely had to create one. 

***

—Vooom! —Vooom! —Vooom! 

Appearing inside of a lush green forest, was a small black portal. Emerging from it were over fifteen individuals, each with a distinctive aura revolving around them. 

Stepping out of the portal and putting her hand in front of her forehead whilst gazing at the scenery in front of her, Monica muttered. 

"Well, this is not what I expected." 

"What did you expect?"Amon asked as he stared at the enormous infrastructure in the distance. "Did you expect to be transported inside of a cave?" 

"No" Monica shook her head. Scratching her nose, she said. "I was expecting something along the lines of a blood-red sky, or dark clouds with lightning crackling down from the sky, oh and a black castle too." 

"...You watch too many movies."  Listening to Monica's words, Amon was left speechless. "You realize we're on earth, right?" 

"I know, I know, but a woman can still imagine no?" 

"There's a limit to how much someone can imagine." 

"What did you sa—"

"Alright, be quiet the both of you." Cutting Monica before she could blow her top off was Tasos. "Don't forget we're here to finish a mission. Bicker later, not now."

"Tsk, fine." 

"Right." 

At Tasos's words, Amon and Monica begrudgingly nodded their heads. 

"So what next?"  Amon asked. "What are we supposed to do now that we've infiltrated the place?" 

"That is up to Monica." Responding to Amon, Tasos looked at Monica, "If you can please do the honors?" 

"Me?"

"Yes, go ahead." 

"Hehehe, don't mind if a do."  Laughing to herself, Monica unsheathed a thin silver sword from the side of her waist.

Caressing the body of the sword, she muttered.

"It's about time I try this baby out." 

[Dawn of the Avenger], the <S> ranked sword that she had gotten from the auction almost ten months ago.

Ever since buying it, she had never tried the sword before, but now that the opportunity had presented itself, Monica couldn't help but be excited. 

"Tsk, If only I didn't specialize in defense."  Staring at Monica's sword, and turning his head to the side whilst clicking his tongue, Amon grumbled to himself. "If only I had at least one offensive ability"

He was called 'The unbreakable shield' for a reason. It was because he could stop the attacks coming from multiple <SS> ranked heroes at the same time without dying. 

He was a walking fortress, and one of the reasons why he was selected for this mission.

Unfortunately, despite his great defense, he lacked in the offensive department, and even though his personality was that of someone who wanted to destroy things, he could only watch as Monica hogged all of the fun for herself. 

"Ah, right, before I forget."

Just when Monica was about to prepare to attack, recalling something, she turned around and looked at the infiltration team.

"The moment my attack will land, that is when you guys go and infiltrate the facility." A solemn look replaced her usual childish one. "Just like the director said, your goals are the portals, so head there as soon as I create an opening." 

"Roger."

The infiltration team solemnly nodded their heads. 

Just like Monica said, the goal of the mission was to destroy the portals that were inside of the Monolith. More specifically the core inside of the portals. 

Upon cracking the core, they would be able to create a massive explosion that would destroy a major part of the Monolith as well as kill a lot of their important figures. 

'An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth' Monica muttered inside of her mind as she recalled what had happened eight months back at the Lock. 

Indeed, Monica had never forgotten the events that took place eight months back eight months ago.

What she was doing now was essentially the same thing they did back at the Lock. She wanted to let them know what happens when they cross lines that they should've never crossed. 

"Good." With a solemn look, Monica raised her sword and closed her eyes. "I'll start now."

Channeling her mana, her sword suddenly started to resonate, unleashing an orange hue. The magic power slowly started to condense into a gigantic magic sword that levitated in the air. 

Slowly, tremendous pressure engulfed the area. 

Within a couple of seconds, the mana in the air had thickened up so much that it started to become tangible. 

"Huuuu..." 

Exhaling, Monica opened her eyes and took a step forward.

"Alright, I'm going to start. Get ready." 

The moment her words fell, she slashed down. 

—Vuam! 

Slashing down, the world froze and the sword slowly started to move towards the large infrastructure in the distance. 

Thin undulations of magic spread in the air fabricating a scene resembling the northern lights.

"What's this?!" 

Just when the sword energy was about to hit the Monolith, materializing in front of it was a skinny old man with sunken eyes and cheekbones. With a black mantle covering his body, the old man held a scythe in his right hand. 

Glaring at the sword, he shouted. 

"How dare you!" 

Waving his hand forward, a translucent green shield appeared in front of him. Next to him, multiple other individuals appeared. 

But it was too late. 

—BOOOOOOOM! 

The sword came into contact with the shield, and a massive explosion reverberated throughout the surroundings.

Glasses shattered and the whole building shook. 

This was the beginning of the Union's counterattack against the Monolith. 

***

Appearing before the dorm room and double-checking with the surveillance department that 876 had not left the room, Luther glanced at the three recruits that had followed him. 

"You guy stay out, I'll scout first." 

He warned. 

According to his predictions, the moment he would step into the room, the first he should see would be the corpses of the people that used to stay in that room.

He had already asked the surveillance team beforehand so he knew exactly how the people inside of the room looked like.

Not that it mattered since he was going to incapacitate anyone present in the room. 

The only reason he wanted to go first was that, aside from keeping the recruits safe, he wanted to keep the artifact that could change faces to himself. 

Having witnessed 876 's journey all the way from the lab, Luther knew about the capabilities of the mask, and without a doubt, it wasn't a simple artifact.

He knew it was a treasure, and he needed to get his hands on it at all costs. The closer he got to the mask, the greedier he became. 

This was one of the side effects of signing a contract with a demon. Their innermost desires overpowered everything else. 

This was the main reason why he didn't directly capture 876 back when he first saw him. The same could be said about the current situation. 

Had it been a more rational person, they would've been able to capture 876 by now, but Luther was not in a rational state. 

All he could think at the moment was the mask. 

—Clink! 

Taking out a white card and scanning it, the door unlocked.

Upon unlocking the door, without wasting time and opening the door to the room, the first thing Luther saw was an individual standing in the middle of the room holding onto a wooden mask that neared his face.

With one guard beneath his feet and the others scattered around the room dead, the person standing in the middle of the room did not move. 

"I've got you now, 876."

Staring at the mask, without wasting any time, Luther dashed towards 876. 

—Bang! 

Tackling him with his shoulder, 876 crashed against the other side of the wall. The mask fell onto the floor and 876's back directly smashed against the wall as dust flew in the air. 

Briefly glancing in the direction of where 876 was and making sure he was knocked out, squinting, Luther lowered his head and stared at the mask that was by the side of his feet.

Lowering his body, he grabbed the mask and checked its status. 

"So this is the artifact that allows you to change faces?"  Checking the stats of the mask, a look of amazement appeared on his face. "An <A> ranked artifact...no wonder you were able to make it this far."

The more Luther looked at the mask, the more amazed he became.

Despite being a commander, he was only <B-> in strength. He never actually owned any strong artifact, like the one that he was holding. 

Lifting his head and staring at 876, the undisguised greed in Luther's eyes became obvious as his face twisted savagely. 'From this moment onwards, this mask is mine.' Luther muttered inside of his mind.

"So predictable." 

"——!" 

A cold voice suddenly rang from behind, startling Luther out of his thoughts. 

Shortly after, a small crystalline object flew in Luther's direction. Turning around, Luther raised his hand to block the attack. 

—Crack! 

However, the moment his forearm came into contact with the crystalline object, it broke apart into millions of pieces as a green gas diffused in the air completely enveloping Luther's face. 

"What the—!" 

Completely taken off-guard, Luther inhaled the gas that spread in the air. 

"Kh—hhha!" 

Within a couple of seconds, Luther's eyes shot wide. Small red threads or blood appeared by the sides of his eyes as he knelt on the ground with both hands by the side of his neck. 

Opening his mouth like a goldfish, Luther struggled to find any words to say as his breathing started to become more laborious.

"The human mind sure is strange."  The cold voice once again rang inside of the room. Standing up, an all-knowing look appeared on Ren's face. "All it takes is one artifact and they completely lose sight of what's around them...well in your case, it most likely has to do with the contract you've signed, but it really is easy to manipulate someone like you." 

Had Luther looked at the person he had knocked out, or just taken a better look at his surroundings, he would've easily found out that something was not quite right. 

But by directly exposing the mask in front of him, Ren had diverted his attention away from everything else, making Luther's next set of movements extremely predictable. 

Ren revealing the fact that he could change faces back in the forest was for the purpose of igniting Luther's greed. 

By following his primordial instincts that were enhanced due to the contract he signed, he became nothing more than just a puppet that Ren could easily control. 

Everything that Luther did after he found out about the mask was in accordance with what Ren willed.

"Kahua.." 

Lifting his head, Luther watched Ren slowly walk up to him. 

Even though he wanted to fight back, he could barely lift his body as everything inside of him was melting at a rapid rate. If not for the intense amount of mana he was using, he would've long have died. 

Lifting the hat off of his face, and revealing his burned face, Ren tapped on the sword that was by the side of his waist. 

"Thank you for acting like I wanted you to." 

—Click! 

Following this, a subtle clicking sound rang out, and silence descended in the room.