The Author's POV

Running through the halls of the Monolith, I could hear the sound of fighting in the distance. The closer I was to the general portals, the louder the sound of fighting became.

'Shit, this isn't a fight I can stop.'

Once I arrived near the location of the portals, staring at the fight from the distance, I realized that recklessly entering the scene would only lead up to one conclusion, my imminent death. 

"Damn it, what should I do?" 

Though I couldn't tell the exact ranks of the people fighting in the distance, I could tell that it ranged from <A> rank to <S> rank. Just the faint undulations of energy that surged out of their bodies caused my face to contort. 

Furthermore, judging from the situation up ahead, the people from the Union were currently at a disadvantage. Although they seemed to be even in numbers, the people from the Monolith were indeed a tad bit stronger. I could tell this from the auras that were being released from the bodies of the people from the Monolith. 

The situation was slowly becoming direr and direr for the Union members. 

—BAAANG!

Suddenly disrupting me out of my thoughts was a loud crashing noise. Turning my head, an individual appeared not so far from where I was. Judging for the pure untainted mana that was faintly revolving around his body, he was part of the Union force. 

Staring at the individual that was close to me, he appeared to be a caucasian man with brown hair and green eyes. At the moment his body was filled with cuts and bruises, and his breathing was difficult. 

Looking at him, my mind started racing as a bold idea suddenly struck my head. 

"...Ugh, this is nothing short of suicide." 

My face contorted a little. 

The more I thought about it, the more I realized how bold my idea was. Just a simple mistake and I would end up dying. 

But, I had no choice. 

Simply put, if I didn't go through with it, I'd only be delaying my death by 9 years. Monica and Amon's death would only signify the start of a whole world of trouble for my family, and humanity as a whole.

'I can't let that happen.'

Thus. 

Taking a familiar small ring from Luther's dimensional space and putting it on my finger, I lifted my head up and checked to see if anyone was planning on attacking the injured person from the Monolith. 

Fortunately for me, one of his team members was buying him time to recover from his injuries, and so I knew that no one would disturb me. At least for a bit. 

Taking advantage of this, channeling my mana towards my sword until a white glow enveloped it, I dashed out and attacked the Union member. Because of the uniform, I was wearing, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. 

WIIIIIING!

Startled, the Union member looked in my direction. With the aid of the wall, he weakly stood up and raised his spear. 

The moment his eyes landed on me and he lifted his spear, my feet almost stopped moving. It felt as though I was stuck at the bottom of the ocean with no air to breathe. 

I felt completely powerless. 

"Haaa!" 

Even then, gritting my teeth, I pushed forward and slashed my sword in his direction. It wasn't the Keiki style, nor any other sword technique that I knew. It was just a simple slash with all my mana concentrated on the sword. 

Arriving before the Union member, closing my eyes, I inwardly prayed. 

'Please fucking notice!'

Then, the sound of metal colliding resounded. 

Clang—!

Once the metallic sound rang out, for a second nothing happened. Then, lifting my head up, I saw two obsidian black eyes looking straight into mine with unprecedented seriousness. 

"Who are you?" 

His cold voice rang in my ears. 

Looking back at those eyes, I smiled in relief. 

"Haaa....haaaa...thank god you've noticed." 

There was a fundamental difference between Heroes and Villains, and it was that Heroes' mana was pure, whilst for villains, although they too utilized mana, theirs was tainted with demonic energy. 

This was the fundamental difference that enabled people to tell the difference. 

Therefore, upon spotting me, and noticing the pure mana that was revolving around my sword, they realized that I wasn't a villain. The lack of killing intent on my part also contributed a little. 

Even then, that did not mean that I was still in the clear as his voice once again rang inside of my ears. 

"You haven't answered my question. Who are you?" 

This time a trace of killing intent was mixed in his voice, causing my body to involuntarily shudder. 

Mustering every bit of strength to look at him in the eyes, I raised my sword and once again slashed in his direction. 

"...You wouldn't know, but I can tell you this. I'm on your side." 

Clang—!

"Then why should I trust you, and how can someone as weak as you be of any help?" 

"Bit harsh, no?" 

My mouth twitched slightly at his words. 

Clang—!

As I was secretly conversing with the Union member, we kept exchanging moves. As I attacked, the union member defended. Of course, he pretended to be injured whilst defending against my attacks, else it wouldn't look believable.

"Cut the chit-chat, what is your purpose in approaching me?" 

"I have a way to help you." 

"You have a way?" 

"Yes, but I need your help." 

Clang—!

Once again our weapons clashed. Staring at me, the Union member said after a brief pause.

"...Even though I can confirm that you're not a villain, why should I trust you?" 

Cautiousness flashed across his eyes. 

"Listen up," Slashing my sword down, the Union member 'narrowly' avoided it. Raising my sword again, I slashed down again. "Quite frankly, I don't gain anything by helping you. If we're being real, given your circumstances, the chances of you escaping are nearly zero, right?" 

"What are you trying to say?" 

WIIING!

This time it was his turn to attack, indicating with his eyes to me where he was going to attack next, I moved my neck slightly and narrowly avoided his attack. 

Feeling the tip of the spear brush past me, I inwardly swallowed a mouthful of saliva and continued. 

"You have no choice but to trust me. Instead of fighting a battle that you have no hope of winning, fight one that can give you a little bit of hope." 

Whilst I was speaking, I made sure to read the Union member's expression. Even though frustration could be seen on his face, my words seemed to have had an effect on him as his attack weakened a little bit.

It was to be expected though. What I said wasn't wrong. Judging from how things were going, they were bound to lose. To make matters worse, they couldn't even escape since their opponents were sticking to them like an octopus. 

The person before me knew this very well. 

"...What's your plan then?" 

'It worked!'

The edges of my lips curved upwards, as my heart finally relaxed a little bit. 

Turning my head and staring at the gates in the distance, I spoke. 

"I want you to clear a path for me to the portals, and hold the Monolith members back for at least a couple of minutes." 

My plan was to directly break the core of the portals and create an explosion. Essentially, I was planning on doing with the Union were originally planning on doing, but unlike them, I could do it faster. 

This was simply because of the card that I had gotten from Luther that enabled me to gain access to the portal data system. 

"Clear a path to the portals?" A look of confusion appeared on the Union member's face. Then, as he processed the information, his eyes opened widely. "...wait, don't tell me that you're planning on breaking the core? That's impossible!?" 

Slashing down, I reassured.

"Don't worry, I have my means." 

"What means?" 

"I don't have time to explain, just know that I can do it. The choice is up to you."

Clang—!

Squinting, the Union member slashed down. For the next couple of seconds, neither one of us spoke. 

After a while, the union member lifted his head and solemnly looked at me.

"...what are the chances of you succeeding?" 

Smiling, I replied.

"That does not depend on me, it depends on you." 

The success rate of the operation depended on how much time they could buy for me whilst I break the core. If they could hold out for more than a minute, then there was a good chance that I could break the core.

"...but what about the escape? Once you break the core, everyone is going to aim for you." 

"Don't worry about that, I've got that covered too." 

"B—" 

"We don't have time!" 

Cutting him off I raised my voice. We had been fighting for approximately a minute, and in that minute the situation for the Union had gotten really dire. If we wasted any more time talking, then the whole plan would get scrapped.

He needed to quickly go back to aid them. 

"Right now, your job is to do what I told you to do. If you do that, I can guarantee you a chance at escaping this." 

"Alright." Staring deeply into my eyes, the Union member bit his lips before he slashed at me. This time with a little bit more force than before. A hint of killing intent appeared in his eyes, as his voice became cold. "...I will do as you say, but, if your screw us over, just know that I will do everything within my power to kill you." 

Caught off-guard by the sudden attack, my sword flung away. Lowering my head and staring at him, I nodded faintly. 

"Sure..."

"Alright, I'm counting on you then." 

"Huek!" 

As he finished his words, in a lightning-fast manner, the spear flashed and pierced my shoulder.

Feeling the tremendous pain in my shoulder, I fell to the ground and pretend to be dead. Turning around, the Union member quickly joined his members. Upon his arrival, the dire situation stabilized a little bit. 

'Damn it, couldn't he have pulled his punches a little bit?' 

I cursed whilst I played on the ground. The pain coming from the stab just now hurt like hell. Fortunately for me, I had been through worse and thus was able to bear with it. 

Whilst laying on the ground, taking a deep breath I channeled my mana towards my feet and activated my movement art [Drifting steps]. Slowly, the hue around my feet increased. 

As drifting steps had reached the Greater realm of mastery, instead of increasing the speed as I continued running, I could not stack up the wind psyons underneath my feet in a manner that upon releasing the stacked-up wind psyons, for a brief moment, I could reach a state similar to the third movement, Void Step.

The only downside was that I had couldn't move whilst I stacked up. 

SHIIIIIIIIING!

As I was staking up, I suddenly felt a burst of mana coming from the distance. Lifting my head weakly, I realized that all of the Union members had decided to go all out.

'So he's managed to convince his members already?'

Not even five minutes had passed since he had left, and somehow the person I talked to before had managed to convince his team members. It looked like they were truly desperate. 

Once everyone decided to go all out, the situation started to shift. Although the Monolith still held the upper hand, a small path had cleared up. 

"Well, I guess it's my turn" 

Once the path appeared, lifting my body up, my eyes locked towards the portal room in the distance. At the moment that area was the one that was most crowded, but with the aid of the Union members, most of the Monolith people had been pushed away. 

"huuuu, here goes nothing." 

Exhaling, the hue around my feet intensified.

BOOOOOM—!

An explosion rang out and the world around me warped Within seconds I appeared near the portal. Without wasting any time, I quickly entered the room.

"What's going on!?" 

My appearance obviously startled people, as for a brief moment, the fighting ceased. Knowing full well what was happening, this small opening gave enough time for the people from the Union to reorganize themselves as they moved nearer towards the portal. 

"Stop him!" 

Alarmed, and finally realizing what was going on, the people from the Monolith glared in my direction. Glared at by such powerful figures, I fell down on the ground due to the pressure.

"Hmph! Try your best!" 

Thankfully, coming to my rescue were the people from the Union who attacked even more fiercely and relieved me from the pressure. Thanking them inside of my mind, I looked around the room. 

"Quick, we can't hold them back for long!" 

Without looking back, I raised my hand and did an 'Ok' sign. The person who just spoke was the person whom I told my plans to before. 

'If I'm not wrong, it should be here.'

Moving towards the portal, I scanned it from top to bottom. Spotting a small compartment, my eyes light up. Taking out Luther's card from my dimensional space, I swiped it on the compartment. 

Di—!

Right after scanning the card, the compartment opened up. Upon opening the compartment, a small display appeared in my vision. 

"...where, is it." 

Turning on the display, I quickly swiped through its setting looking for the access panel for the core. As my finger moved across the monitor at incredible speeds, my eyes darted left and right trying to best see the setting that I was looking for.

"Shit, where in the world is it?!"

To my dismay, this was taking way longer than I had originally anticipated. Cold sweat trickled down the side of my face. 

BAANG—!

Startling me was a loud crashing sound next to me, lowering my head, to my horror I spotted a Union member lying lifelessly next to me.

"Oh no." 

Turning my head, I noticed that the situation had truly become dire. The formation that the Union members had set up was almost crumbling, and within any second now, they would quickly appear next to me. 

"Shit."

Knowing this, turning my head and staring at the display, my heartbeat like it had never done before. Frantically moving my fingers across the screen, I looked for the setting that enabled me to gain access to the core. 

But this being the first time I had actually ever touched the panel, I had no idea where to look. Time was slowly running out, and the sweat by the side of my head intensified. 

SHIIIING! 

"Haaaa!" 

Pained screams echoed from behind me. I did my best to ignore it, as I looked through the panel. 

"——!" 

Biting my lips I continued to look for the right setting until finally, my finger paused on a certain area. My eyes then light up, and without hesitation, I pressed on the screen.

SHUUUUA! 

The moment I pressed on the screen, the gate shook slightly, and the middle of it opened up revealing a black core. Threads of black demonic energy encircled the black core, as it pulsated slightly. Slowly, demonic energy enveloped the room. 

"Stop him!" 

Upon the core's revelation, the whole atmosphere changed. The people from the Monolith became even more desperate, whilst the people from the Union fought even more fiercely.

Although the people from the Union were dying at an alarming rate, the core had brought hope upon them. As long as they held just a little bit more, then there was a chance that they could escape. 

"Quick destroy the core!" 

A person from the Union shouted. 

Without needing to be told what to do, I dashed towards where the core was and unsheathed my sword. Then, pouring most of my mana into it, I slashed down. 

Clang—!

A dull metallic sound rang out.