The Author's POV

"Wow, that's a lot of stuff." 

Staring at the commander's dimensional storage, I was amazed by the things he had inside of it. From potions to artifacts, he was loaded. 

'Ah, I should check that stuff later, my priority should be the card.'

There was a time and place for everything.

Now was not the time for me to get distracted by the things inside of his dimensional storage. 

My priority should be the card. Without it, my escape route was blocked.

"Here." 

Thankfully, it didn't take long for me to find it as a black card quickly appeared on the palm of my hands. 

Staring at the card, I put it back in my dimensional space and headed for the door. 

"...I better hurry out of this place." 

The hardest task was completed. All I needed to do now was rush all the way towards the gates at the first level. 

"Commander, is everything alright?" 

However, just as I was about to leave the place, someone else entered the room. The moment the individual entered and my eyes landed on him, my pupils dilated and my body froze. 

"...What are you doing here?"

I muttered out loud. 

"Hm? You know me?" Gazing in my direction for a brief moment, Matthew's eyes paused towards a certain corpse behind me. "Commander?" 

Upon spotting the commander's dead body, instead of panicking, a wild yellow hue started revolving around his body. With his eyes focused on me, he commanded. 

"Ezra! Alisa!" 

"You called?" 

"What's going on leader?" 

At his call, two more people showed up. A wild aura revolved around their body. 

"!" 

Making eye contact with Matthew who nudged his head in my direction, they immediately got the gist of the situation and got into battle positions. 

"You."  Unsheathing his saber, Matthew didn't immediately attack. Pointing it in my direction, he said. "From your previous words, it seems as though you know me." Staring at my face for a couple of seconds, a trace of disgust flashed across his eyes. "...but I don't ever recall meeting someone like you. Especially with a face as memorable as yous." 

Listening to his words, a light sigh escaped from my lips as I quickly regained my calm. 

"Haaa..."

Scratching the back of my head, I muttered out loud. "Your attempt at trying to buy time is honestly pathetic." A green hue suddenly enveloped my body as I placed my hand on the grip of the sword. "Oh, and about what you said before, I don't actually know you, I was just expecting Luther to come by himself." 

This part wasn't a lie. 

I had originally expected Luther to try to accomplish this mission by himself with the goal of taking the mask for himself in mind. Never did I expect Matthew to show up. 

But it didn't matter. 

Gazing at Matthew and the three people behind me, neither one of us moved. We were both trying our best to waste time. Him for getting a better understanding of the situation and getting in battle formation with his members, and me for my mana. 

'I need to finish this quick.'

I thought to myself, as my eyes peered through the gap of the door behind Matthew and his two companions.

Making sure that there was no one else, I once again looked at them and analyzed their strength. 

'Judging from the mana revolving around them, all of them are <D> ranked, with Matthew being slightly stronger at <D+> rank.'

This wasn't strange though. For the longest time, Matthew had always been stronger than me. 

However, ever since last meeting him, I had finally caught up with him.

Currently, standing opposite to me in a triangular formation with Matthew at the back, they were glaring at me with unprecedented calmness. 

It became evident to me that they were extremely experienced individuals. 

From where I was standing, I could see no gap in their formation. 

To make matters worse, Matthew was standing more than ten meters away from me. This was outside of the range of the third movement, thus I couldn't one-shot him just yet. 

'I need to take the initiative.'

Time was of the essence. 

If they called for backup, then the situation would truly start to become troublesome.

Although it wouldn't hinder my plans as they would think that I was going for the normal gates, it would reduce the chances of me escaping by a certain degree. This, I did not want. 

Thus, gripping the hilt of the sword, slowly unsheathing the sword, a subtle clicking sound rang inside of the room. 

—Click!

The third movement of the [Keiki style] : Void Step. 

My vision darkened and I appeared in front of the male individual standing in front of Matthew. With my sword unsheathed, I stabbed my sword in the direction of his heart. 

—Spurt! 

My appearance was so unexpected that he had no time to react before the sword quickly penetrated his heart. 

"Huek!" 

Blood spilled on the floor, and a body fell on the ground. If one looked carefully, they'd see a small hole in the middle of their body. 

"Ezra!" Shouted the female individual.

Raising her weapon, she quickly dashed in my direction.

"Alise no! What are you doing!?" Matthew shouted as he watched Alisa dash in my direction. His face was incomparably white. Almost as though he had seen a ghost. Apathetically glancing at Matthew, I muttered. "It's too late."

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

—Click! 

Yet again a subtle clicking sound rang in the room and another body fell. 

"Haaaa..." Staring at the dead body beneath my feet, exhaling, I turned around and coldly glanced in Matthew's direction. "I'm sure you've already figured everything out, no?" 

"Y-you!?" With his eyes wide open, raising his hands and pointing towards my direction, trembling he mumbled. "R-Ren?!" 

***

Empty. 

Gazing at Ren getting engulfed by the flames on live television, that was how Matthew felt. 

The one source of motivation and goal to strive for power disappeared right before his eyes. For a brief moment of time, Matthew's world became blank.

'What now? He's dead, what's the point in getting stronger? What do I do? What am I?' 

Upon losing what was once his goal, all that was left was nothing but emptiness. Matthew's purpose for strength was gone and what replaced it was nothing but emptiness. 

Everblood had long disappeared, leaving him all alone inside of the Monolith, scraping for merit points by risking his life every day. 

His weak mental state became apparent when during the battle arena matches he almost came close to losing on multiple occasions. 

He felt empty, alone, and powerless. 

Many times he wanted to just give up and die.

In fact, he had given up at one point. However, just when he was about to lose for good, a hand reached out for him. 

Xavier Pearce. 

That was the name of the person who gave him a second opportunity.

Taking his broken self and instilling new ideas and ideals inside of his head, Matthew managed to move on and create new goals for himself.

Though it took a while, he had finally shed his old naive self whose only purpose for growth was revenge. 

It was only after he had gone through a reformation that he realized how naive and stupid he was back then. 

Without looking back, Matthew grew at an astonishing rate. During the period he was under Xavier, not once had he seen Everblood. 

But he no longer cared. 

Put into another hell hole, Matthew did whatever he could to survive. He couldn't care less about Everblood even though he was his contracted demon. 

He had new goals and ambitions, no longer did he want to dwell in the past. He just wanted to focus on the future. 

...Or so he thought. 

"H-how?"

Gazing at the half-burned person standing before him, Matthew's hand trembled as he pointed in Ren's direction. 

"Yo—" 

"Ezra!!" 

Cutting Matthew off was Alisa who screamed as she watched her companion, Ezra, die right before her eyes. 

"How dare you!" 

Glaring at Ren, Alisa raised her sword and dashed in his direction. 

"Alise no! What are you doing!?"

Snapping out of his thoughts, Matthew shouted as he stared at Alisa. She was no match for Ren. 

"It's too late." 

—Click! 

But it was too late. 

A subtle clicking sound rang out, and a body fell on the ground. 

It all happened in a flash.

Too fast.

Fast to the point that it was almost impossible for him to keep up. Gazing at Alisa's lifeless body on the ground, Matthew lifted his head. 

Standing above Alisa, Ren slowly turned his head. 

"I'm sure you've already figured everything out, no?" 

'That familiar voice.'

Busy figuring out his opponent, Matthew was unable to make the connection until just now. The sword technique and the voice. 

It was a voice that he was all too familiar with. 

Closing his eyes, Matthew forcefully calmed himself down. After that, opening his eyes, he calmly looked at Ren before asking. 

"Aren't you supposed to be dead?" 

"...It'll take much more than an explosion of that degree to kill me." 

Standing a couple of meters away from him, Ren coldly replied. 

"Is that so?" 

"Yeah."

"Judging from how you killed my two companions with two big moves, you must be pretty low on mana, no?"

"You're not wrong." 

Matthew smiled whilst a yellow hue that was mixed with black threads expanded from his body. A green hue similarly expanded from Ren's body. 

As the mana on both of them soared, the atmosphere inside of the room became tense. Intense bloodlust enveloped the room as the two glared at each other. 

"Should we finish what we've started?" 

"Yeah." 

Ren slowly closed his eyes and immediately exhaled a long breath. His eyes were suddenly shot opened and the green hue around his body intensified. 

'Now.' 

Sharply starting at Ren's hand, just when he was about to touch the sheath of his sword, Matthew made his move. 

His toes gently pressed onto the ground as his body shot forward like a lightning bolt. 

—Click! 

A subtle clicking sound rang out. 

—Clank! 

However, unlike the previous times, the sound of metal clashing rang out.  Separating from each other, Ren frowned whilst Matthew smiled. 

"...even if you're alive, since you've revealed what sword art you practice, defeating you shouldn't be a problem." 

The Keiki style was famous. 

It was so famous that basic information about it could be found on the web.  Even though Ren had died, Matthew researched the Keiki style. 

One notable feature of the Keiki style was that it had five movements, and in between each movement there was a time when the practitioner needed time to accumulate mana. 

As long as he attacked before he could activate each movement, the only thing Matthew had to deal with were extremely fast attacks. 

Although tricky, they weren't impossible to defend and counterattack against. 

"Huuuup!" 

With a wave of his hand, the saber in Matthew's hand carried a ferocious force as it slashed vertically towards Ren's front. The pressure coming from the attack caused Ren's clothes to flutter slightly. 

Sensing the incoming attack, Ren's brows twitched slightly. His indifferent eyes gazed at the incoming attack with unprecedented calmness. Removing his hand from the sheath of his sword, Ren raised his hands and followed the movement of the saber. 

With his eyes tracing the movements of the saber, Ren's hands glowed. Soon the saber arrived before Ren, who took a step back. With his right hand touching the body of the saber, Ren's hand moved in a 'S' movement. 

"What!" 

—Bang! 

To Matthew's shock, he watched as his saber followed Ren's hand movement, redirecting the attack towards the ground. 

—Click! 

Taking advantage of the opening he created, Ren placed his hand on the sheath of his sword. A clicking sound rang out. 

Quickly recovering from the shock, Matthew let go of the saber as his feet pressed onto the ground. His body quickly shot back, narrowly avoiding Ren's attack. 

"Haaa...haaa...you've got me on that one."

He muttered with heavy breaths as he looked at Ren with unprecedented seriousness. 

'Damn it.'

From the short exchange he just had with Ren, he knew that in terms of strength, Ren was stronger. Not just that he also seemed to be adept in martial techniques. 

Still, that did not mean that Matthew gave up. He had faced many similar situations back in the battle arena.

In a fight, all it took was one moment.

One moment to decide the end of the battle. 

That was what he was waiting for. That one moment. 

"huuu..." 

Exhaling and tapping onto his bracelet, Matthew took out another saber from his dimensional space.  Although it wasn't as strong as his previous saber, it would make do for now. 

Staring at Ren opposite to him, Matthew decided to go all out. 

'Let's see what happens when I increase my speed.'

Slashing down, he once again shot explosively forward. This time around, the speed appeared to have instantly become many times higher than what it was earlier as his figure became a blur. 

In a second, he had already arrived before Ren. 

Gazing at his cold face, Matthew slashed.