The Author's POV

—Kracka! —Kracka! —Kracka! 

The repetitive sound of bones breaking resounded across the forests. 

"Second shoulder, right arm, left arm, right ribs..." 

Repeatedly breaking each and everyone one of Xavier's bones, I did not realize that Xavier had long passed out from the pain.

White foam streamed down from his mouth as his eyes had long, completely turned white. 

—Kracka! 

This time it was his left leg. 

With rage clouding my mind, I completely lost myself in the torture. Of course, I wasn't aware of what was going on, but all I felt at the moment was the unprecedented urge to destroy Xavier. 

"Ren, stop!" 

"Huh?" 

I could only wake up from my hysteria after I felt a slight nudge on my shoulder.

Turning around and seeing Hein and Ava looking at me with worried and fearful expressions on their faces, it was then that I finally realized what was going on. 

Closing my eyes and exhaling deeply, I apologized. 

"Haa...sorry. I lost myself there for a second."

Wiping the sweat that had accumulated on my forehead, I silently stood up. 

'It happened again...'

Clenching my fists hard, I glared at the sky. 

Four months had passed since I had escaped the Monolith, and even then, I was still suffering from the backlash of the experiments back in the Monolith. 

Subjected to virtual simulations and serum dosages every day for months, a part of me broke, and at times, I would lose myself just like now. 

To make matters worse, I had no way of controlling these types of moments.

Instead, they were now deeply engraved into my brain. 

This was part of the reason why I didn't want to meet my parents for too long.

I didn't want them to see this new side of me. 

The only reason I was able to restrain my urge with them was because of Monarch's indifference.

Whenever I felt the urge, I would quickly activate it to stop myself from losing control. 

But I knew that this wasn't a long term solution. 

"Haaa..." 

Calming myself down and turning my head, I looked towards Ava and Hein. 

"Are you guys done on your side as well?" 

"Yes, we've taken him down."

Hein replied. 

Looking behind them, I could see one of the black-clad individuals on the ground, presumingly dead. 

I nodded my head in satisfaction. 

"I see. Good job." 

—You guys finished?

Ryan's voice suddenly rang inside of my ear. 

Tapping onto my ear, I responded.

"Yes, we're done here. You can come down." 

—Okay.

Once Ryan's voice faded, I lowered my head. Then, crossing my arms, I looked at Xavier, who was beneath my feet and on the verge of death. 

Although almost all of his bones had shattered and he was almost dead, he still had one more role to fulfil.

He couldn't die just yet. 

Just as I was about to bend down towards him, Angelica appeared by my side.

Placing her hand on Xavier's chest, she slowly removed all of the demonic energy that was lingering in his body. 

This process took a while, but before long, any sign that she had fought with him dissapeared. 

"Human, you've improved a lot." 

She muttered as she was removing the demonic energy from Xavier's body. 

Without taking my eyes away from Xavier, I softly replied. 

"...You too. I guess Silug's situation helped you out a lot." 

About fourteen months had passed since I had last seen Silug.

Given that the time in Imorra flowed much slower, about a decade had passed there. 

I had initially expected the war in Immorra to end in about three years; however, my calculations were far off. 

The war in Immorra had continued for over a decade, and it was only around three months ago that Silug had broken through to <S> rank. 

Even then, he still had not joined the war.

He was still biding his time. 

According to Angelica, Silug told her that the orc chief and Marquess Azeroth had still not clashed yet. 

He was only going to swoop in when both sides were injured. 

That was fine with me, though. 

Although I wanted the war to end sooner so that Silug could build his forces faster, this still worked out since I was still unsure about Silug's stance. 

On the bright side, Silug's breakthrough had benefited Angelica a lot. Thanks to him, she was able to break through to Count rank in only six months. 

It was an alarming rate of progress. One that even left me speechless. 

"Ren." 

A familiar voice suddenly sounded out. 

Turning my head, I soon spotted a few familiar figures approaching me from a distance. 

The edges of my lips curled upwards. 

"...You guys are finally here." 

The individuals were Ryan, Smallsnake, and Leopold. 

"Thanks for the help. You guys helped out a lot." 

"No problem." 

Smallsnake nodded his head before casually throwing a small object in my direction. 

"Here's the listening device that you've asked for." 

"Oh, nice." 

Catching the device, I bent down towards Xavier. 

The device that Smallsnake had given me was a simple listening device. Nothing special. 

"What are you doing?" 

Ryan curiously asked.

"Nothing much..." 

Putting the small device into Xavier's mouth and making him swallow it, tapping on my bracelet once, I proceeded to take out a syringe from my dimensional space. 

A nostalgic smile appeared on my face. 

"A pity that you won't be able to know what hit you." 

Sticking the sharp needle of the syringe towards Xavier's neck, I injected him with a high dosage of the serum. 

"Khuk." 

A slight sound escaped from Xavier's mouth. 

Ignoring it, after injecting him with the first dosage of the serum, I tossed the syringe to the side and took another one and repeated the same process. 

"Khuk" 

A similar sound escaped from his mouth once I injected him with the second dosage. 

Xavier was an <A> ranked individual; one syringe was not enough for him to ultimately become brain-dead. 

This was why I injected him with another dosage. 

As I predicted, the moment I injected the second full dosage of the serum, Xavier's body started to convulse like crazy. 

"Ren?" 

Smallsnake, alongside the others, took a step back. 

"Don't worry, he's going to be fi—see, he's fine." 

Not even halfway through my words and Xavier's body stopped convulsing.

Then, opening his eyes, revealing a languid look devoid of any emotion, Xavier blankly stared at the sky. 

"...what have you done?" 

Hein asked from the side. 

Throwing the syringes away, my eyes became sharp. 

"Nothing much; I've just given him a taste of his own medicine." 

He was the individual that had approved the project. 

Letting him have a taste of the serum was an excellent way to make him understand what I went through during those hellish eight months. 

Well, it no longer mattered since he was now wholly brain-dead. 

Tapping onto my bracelet, I took out an empty dimensional ring and tossed it towards Smallsnake. 

"Here, take this ring and complete the task that I briefed you on before." 

"...Okay." 

Taking the ring, Smallsnake hesitatingly turned around and left. 

Before long, he returned to my side and threw the ring in my direction. Catching the ring with my right hand, I put the ring on Xavier's finger. 

Then, tapping onto another ring that was resting on Xavier's finger, I slowly channelled my mana onto the ring. 

"Have a safe trip..." 

Ten seconds after my words faded, out of nowhere, Xavier magically disappeared from where he was. 

As he disappeared, I took out a small black box and sat down on a nearby rock. 

Staring at the black box in my hand, the smile soon disappeared off of my face as a cold look soon replaced it. 

***

A body was placed in the middle of the hall that was shrouded by a gloomy atmosphere. The body belonged to Xavier, who suddenly appeared out of thin air inside the VIP portal area. 

Everyone in the hall remained silent as they eyed Xavier's body.

Although he was still alive and breathing, his brain was completely dead. So no matter how much they tried to stimulate it, they couldn't get any reaction from him. As such, extracting information from him was no longer possible. 

At this moment, none of the people in the hall dared to emit the slightest sound because they could feel the chilly killing intent of the older man seated in an oversized chair. 

"...Is this his way of mocking us!?" 

Mo Jinhao stared at the corpse with bloodied eyes as he clenched his teeth audibly; explosive anger that was suppressed deeply inside of him could be heard in his thick voice.

To the people in the room, every second felt agonizing. The pressure exuding from Mo Jinhao's body was too oppressive. 

—Bang! 

Breaking the silence, the doors of the hall smacked open. 

A rushed figure entered the hall.  Bending down on one knee, he reported. 

"Deputy head, we've found out about the contents of the dimensional ring on Xavier's finger." 

"Tell me." 

"...Yes." 

Swallowing a mouthful of saliva with his head still lowered, the servant tapped on a small tablet, and a holographic image suddenly popped up in front for everyone to see. 

"..." 

Once the image appeared for everyone to see, heavy silence descended in the room. 

"Is this a joke?" 

Thick killing intent enveloped the room as Mo Jinhao stood up and glared at the servant. 

"N-no deputy head...t-this is what was found in the dimensional space." 

Under Mo Jinhao's heavy pressure, the servant started to perspire heavily. Finally, his complexion turned ashen white, and his body sunk to the floor. 

Ignoring the servant and staring at the holographic image, a ferocious killing intent rose inside of Mo Jinhao's heart. 

Depicted on the holograms was the image of four heads placed side by side. 

The reason for Mo Jinhao's anger was because he knew who those heads belonged to. 

They were the heads of the other four individuals that went with Xavier. 

This was a blatant provocation to him! 

Lowering his head and staring at the servant, Mo Jinhao's eyes narrowed. 

"Was there anything else in the dimensional ring?" 

"Y....yes." 

Without looking up, the servant fearfully nodded his head. 

"Give it to me. "

Swallowing another mouthful of saliva and trembling all over, the servant took out a small black box and handed it to Mo Jinhao. 

"H-here." 

Casually taking the box, Mo Jinhao asked. 

"What's this?" 

"It's a communication device." 

"A communic—" 

—Ding! —Ding! 

As soon as Mo Jinhao held onto the black box, the box started to vibrate. 

The room instantly became quiet. 

Lowering his head, Mo Jinhao's brows knit. Then, pressing onto the top right corner of the small box, he muttered in a soft voice. 

"876..." 

Though his voice was silent, it powerfully rang inside of the ears of everyone present in the room. 

Khhhhh—!

A static sound sounded. 

—876?

Before long, a cheerful yet confused voice suddenly sounded from the device's speaker. 

—...Right, that's what you guys called me. Been a while since I've heard of that nickname. Not gonna lie, kinda miss it. 

"It's you..." 

—Hmm, this voice. Mo Jinhao I presume?

"..." 

Mo Jinhao didn't answer. 

However, those around him suddenly felt the air around them thicken up considerably.

Their breathing started to become rougher. 

—I'll take the silence as a yes. 

Ren continued. 

—The reason why I called you was to ask whether you liked my present or not? How was it? I spent quite a bit of time preparing everything for you. So don't I at least deserve a little thank you?

Tangible bloodlust suddenly manifested from Mo Jinhaos back as everyone in the room turned pale. 

—Ah, don't be so angry. All I did was just kill an extra. Not that you'd know what it means. Anyhow the reason I called you here was to just say one thing...

Suddenly the voice behind the speaker became colder. 

—Hear me carefully because I'll only say it once. 

As if a switch had been flipped, the cheerful voice from before wholly disappeared. 

—I'm here to make a pledge. 

Clenching tightly onto the black box, a thick aura sprang out from Mo Jinhao's body. His grey eyes coldly looked at the box in front of him as his clothes fluttered wildly. 

—Remember...when I return, and I mean when because I will return.

Conviction could be felt from Ren's voice as he spoke. It was as though he was utterly certain that he would return. 

As if this outcome had been predetermined from the very beginning. 

—When that happens, make sure to count your days. Because no matter how long it will take, be it a year, two years, or even a decade....I will come back. So remember this moment. Remember what I just said today, because once you look back on it in how many x years in the future, I want you to remember that this was the day that I proclaimed yours and the Monolith's—

Crush—! 

Cutting the speech off, Mo Jinhao crashed the black device in his hand.

With a terrifying glare on his face, his body trembled uncontrollably as a black aura surged out from his body, completely enveloping the hall. 

The hall suddenly shook, and Mo Jinhao's enraged roar reverberated throughout the whole building. 

"...876!!!"