The Author's POV

[The events that are taking place here, are five months after Ren's death. (Current timeline, is eight)]

'”Clang! '”Clang!

The sound of metal clashing against metal rang out repeatedly.

"Haaa..haaa..."

Standing opposite to each other, two youth's glared at each other. One held a long broadsword, whilst the other held a dagger in each hand.

They were Kevin and Jin respectively.

Both of their breathing was rough, and droplets of sweat trickled down the side of their faces.

Lowering his body, Jin's body slowly melted into the shadows. Squinting, and staring at Jin who had just melted into the shadows, Kevin closed his eyes and evened his breathing.

For the next few seconds, apart from the uneven sound of his sweat dropping on the ground, no other sound could be heard.

Kevin suddenly opened his eyes.

Turning around, he swung the broadsword.

'”Clank!

Sparks flew in the air as the body of the broadsword come into contact with both the daggers.

"Haaap!"

Planting his foot on the ground, Kevin shouted out loud as the muscles of his arms bulged. Taking a step forward he forcefully swung the broadsword down and pushed Jin a couple of meters back.

"...khh"

Pushed back, a subtle groan escaped from Jin's mouth. Indifferently staring at Kevin, he twirled the daggers around his hand.

Then, raising his right hand, he bent his body back and threw the dagger.

'”Swoosh!

Splitting the air apart, a whistling sound arose. The dagger was so fast, that only a streak of light could be seen.

Squinting his eyes and staring at the incoming dagger, Kevin tilted the broadsword vertically.

'”Clank!

"kuhk!"

Blocking the dagger with the body of the broadsword, sparks flew in the air as a small grunt escaped from Kevin's lips.

The moment Kevin blocked the dagger, Jin suddenly appeared behind him. With his dagger in his hand, he swung.

"Shit."

Cursing, Kevin knew that he was in trouble. Gritting his teeth, rather than moving the whole broadsword, tilting his wrist, he moved the hilt of the sword. By the side of his cheek.

'”Clink!

"Khak!"

Just barely, he managed to block Jin's dagger from hitting his face, however, the recoil that come from the block still struck him right in the face, dazing him a little bit.

Taking advantage of this, twisting his torso, Jin's body twisted 180 degrees in the air. Holding the dagger by the back of his hand, the tip of his dagger quickly approached the other side of Kevin's face.

Staring at the dagger by the side of his eyes, Kevin once again cursed.

"Shit."

'”Clap!

"Alright, that's enough. Jin's won."

Standing in the corner of the room, Donna clapped her hands once. The moment she clapped her hands, a small shockwave swept the area, pushing Jin away from Kevin.

Glancing at both Kevin and Jin, Donna was exasperated. "I've said this before, but this is a light spar, you're not here to kill each other. If you want to do that, don't do it on my watch."

"Haaa..."

Slumping down on the ground, Kevin dropped the broadsword down. With heavy breaths, he lifted his head up and congratulated Jin.

"Congrats on your victory."

Standing in front of Kevin, Jin indifferently picked up his dagger from the ground. He then briefly glanced at Kevin.

"...win what? I know that you're still not used to the broadsword."

"Well, a loss is still a loss."

For the past two months, Kevin had been switching weapons from a regular sword to a broadsword.

Despite his inexperience with the broadsword, he was able to quickly master it to some degree, and even though he was not quite as strong with it, he was still a force to be reckoned with.

Of course, that was only applicable if his opponent was someone that was not on the same level as Jin.

When facing an opponent at Jin's level, his inexperience was quite obvious to see.

"I'm going to class."

Taking one last look at Kevin on the floor, putting his daggers away, Jin casually strolled out of the training ground.

"Kevin, you should go back too," Donna said. "Class starts in an hour, so get a shower and change."

"Aye."

Listening to Donna, Kevin stood up and left the same way Jin left.

"haaa..."

Staring at Kevin's departing figure, Donna let out a sigh. Despite Kevin's attempt at looking fine, Donna knew that Kevin had still not recovered from Ren's death.

He along with Jin changed drastically after 'that' event.

Even though they trained a lot before, somehow Ren's death had sparked a fire within them that made them thrive for strength.

Just last month, both of them had almost broken through to <D+> rank. They were just a tad short, and by the end of the year, she estimated that both of them would breakthrough to <C-> rank, before reaching <B> rank by the end of their third year.

Their level of improvement honestly shocked Donna quite a bit. In terms of talent, there was no one else that could match them. They were total monsters.

'...no, actually, there was actually someone else that could've rivaled their talent.'

Past tense.

There used to be someone that could rival both Jin and Kevin in terms of talent.

...but unfortunately, said person was no longer present.

If it was him, Donna didn't doubt that Kevin and Jin would've had a run for their money.

Regrettably, that was no longer possible.

Recalling the moments prior to Ren's death, Donna's eyes became downcast. If she said that his death had not impacted her in the least, then she'd be lying.

Having spent a lot of time with Ren during their training days, Donna had gotten quite attached to him.

Just like Kevin, his death had hit her. She had become stricter with her students and chose to pour all of her efforts into nurturing them so that such incidents would never happen again.

Unfortunately, unlike before, she was now alone again.

Monica was no longer at the academy, and the last time she had heard from her was about a month ago.

Recently things have been quite hectic at the union, especially since there was a war going on at the moment.

One that was pretty much known to everyone.

The Monolith versus the Union. After the incident that happened at the Lock, the Union was seriously enraged, and from there, an all-out war between the two behemoths happened.

Monica, being one of the strongest people in the union, had to of course take part in the war. As such, she was always too busy to talk to her, let alone help her train Jin and Kevin.

"....Actually, I wonder how Monica is doing."

Tying her hair behind her head, Donna muttered.

"Let me try calling her." Taking out her private phone, Donna dialed a number. "...I hope she isn't too busy. I wanna know how the situation on her side is."

***

Ta.Ta.Ta.Ta.Ta.

The rhythmical and repetitive sound of keys being pressed rang out.

"Da, dum, da, dum~"

Inside of a fairly large room, sitting on a black leather chair that was twice his size, was Ryan. In front of him were five different screens. With both legs on his chair, Ryan's eyes darted all over the monitors in front of him.

This continued for approximately an hour.

After a while, scratching the back of his head, he turned around and apologized.

"...Hm, sorry, but there's no match."

"No match, are you sure?"

"Positive."

"Haaa..." Smallsnake, who was laying down on a small gray couch inside of Ryan's room, let out a long sigh. "How many times have you checked?"

"Eleven, there's no sign of him."

"hmmm." Massaging his head, Smallsnake mumbled. "Just where in the world are you."

Five months had passed since Ren's disappearance. Ever since things had not really been the same.

Even though everyone was still united, it was merely by contract, they weren't really doing anything apart from mostly training and lazying about.

Smallsnake could still remember watching the live stream where Ren died like it was yesterday.

As he watched the stream he got the scare of his life.

That day, he seriously thought that Ren had died.

...but contrary to his expectations, Ren had not died. He was sure of this, why? Because of the mana contract he and each of the members of Caissa had signed.

Had he died, the contract would've long gone null. Since it wasn't, it meant that he was alive.

Knowing that he was alive, Smallsnake started to hope for his return.

With Ryan's aid, Smallsnake created a code that bypassed most of the public security cameras in Ashton city.

From there, using a face recognition software, he looked through the many cameras in Ashton city in hopes of finding someone that matched Ren's descriptions.

Unfortunately, despite all of his attempts, he was unable to spot Ren.

Even so, he didn't give up. Ren was the core of Caissa. Without him, everything would go down the drain. He had to find him.

"Do another check," Smallsnake ordered as he glanced at Ryan. "This time remove anyone that is fat and tall. Keep anyone that has a similar body build as Ren."

"Aye."

Used to this, Ryan turned his attention back on the monitors and tapped on the keyboard.

From time to time Ryan would start biting his nails which would result in Smallsnake scolding him.

"Hey, how many times did I tell you that that is not good for you?"

"Sorry."

Ta.Ta.Ta.Ta.Ta.

Whilst Ryan was busy coding, standing up, Smallsnake moved towards the training ground where an enchanting figure sat down in the middle. Revolving around her was some sort of tangible black energy.

Entering the room, Smallsnake asked. "Angelica, do you have any idea where Ren is?"

After so much time had passed and with no results, Smallsnake was starting to doubt whether Ren was still alive or not. Even though the contract said otherwise, he really couldn't see how Ren had survived amidst that explosion. It was frankly impossible.

Even so, he knew that this was a needless worry.

Opening her eyes, a trace of disgust flashed Angelica's eyes as they paused on Smallsnake who was standing opposite to her.

"Stick like human, if I knew, you think I'd be staying here with you?"

"...Right, that's true, forget that I even asked." Smallsnake bitterly smiled before glancing around and asking. "By the way where is Leopold? I don't see him anywhere"

Closing her eyes, Angelica replied.

As she spoke the disgust in her voice became even more apparent.

"The beast-like human is outside, sucking on that fire stick."

"Fire stick? You mean cigarette?"

Opening her eyes, Angelica glared.

"I don't care, stop disturbing me."

"haaa..."

Being glared at by Angelica, Smallsnake quickly left the training room. Letting out a sigh, he mumbled.

"Ren, wherever you are, please get back quickly."

He was starting to lose his mind.

***

The union, 76th floor.

"Godamn bastards making me work 7 days a week. Even though I'm powerful, I'm still human~"

Sitting behind a desk, Monica muttered out loud as she flicked a small rubber on the top of her desk.

Though Monica said that, she wasn't actually mad. A little bit tired, yes, but otherwise, she wasn't angry by the fact that she was working 7 days a week.

She knew just how important her current mission was.

At the moment they were in a very delicate situation. Just a few weeks ago, they managed to finally find a way to access the Monolith. Although they couldn't directly send anyone there because it was too dangerous, and the location was unknown, the union had a secret weapon with them.

A special artifact that could create a small gate that could lead them towards a certain location as long as they had a visual image of the place.

Regarding the image, they were able to get it by extracting the memories of multiple villains they caught.

That artifact was the Union's secret weapon, and using it they were planning on sending a small unit directly to the Monolith, in hopes of creating as much chaos as possible

'An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth'

Was what the higher-ups said during the meeting.

There were of course many limits to the artifacts such as the limited number of people that could enter, and the cooldown period, but given the situation, it was without a doubt the best weapon they could have to finally deal with the Monolith a devastating blow.

"Those crazy bastards." Recalling the details of the plans, Monica's pouted in annoyance. "Why can't they let me join the infiltration squad."

Unfortunately for Monica, during the time that the Union was planning on sending someone to infiltrate the Monolith, she was tasked with a different mission.

...and that was to garner the attention of the higher-ups of the Monolith, in order to make the situation much easier for the squad they were planning on sending in.

With her head slumped on her desk, she muttered.

"Man, why can't those old bastards let me in on the fun. I woul'”Hm?"

'”Ring! '”Ring!

Cutting Monica off was the sound of her phone ringing. Taking out the phone and seeing the ID of the person calling, she picked up the phone as a mischievous smile appeared on her face.

"Is that you, Donna? Did you perhaps miss me?"

'”What, ah...yes, yes. I missed you so much.

"~How sweet of you." Monica teased. "So what did you call me for?"

She could practically envision Donna rolling her eyes inside of her mind.

'”No...nothing really, it's just that I haven't heard from you for a month, did something happen?"

At Donna's question, Monica's mouth trembled, and the pitch of her voice raised.

"Err..no?"

'”So something really did happen.

Donna's grew stern.

'”Spill it.

"Damn it." A defeated smile appeared on Monica's lips as she mumbled. "Sharp as always."

'”Well...no, not really, it's just that you're way too easy to read.

"Ugh, that hurts."

Unfortunately, for Monica, Donna's words had some truth to them. She had a difficult time hiding secrets as her face would always give her away.

Fortunately, this only happened with Donna. Had it been anyone else, she would've been able to somewhat keep a stoic face.

'”Alright, enough with the jokes, did something really happen?

Donna's stern voice rang through the speaker of the phone. A hint of worry was mixed in the stern voice.

'”If so, is there anything I can do to help?

"Hmmm.." Monica mused whilst playing with the rubber on the table. "I can't say too much, but all I can tell you is that we're planning something big."

'”Something big?

Donna questioned.

"mhm, sorry, even if it's you, I can't say too much."

This was a top-secret operation that the Union was going to carry out. Even if she trusted Donna with all of her heart, she couldn't say anything.

Donna seemed to have understood this point as well, as she didn't pursue the matter any further.

'”I understand. Good luck with your mission.

"Thanks, is there anything else you wanted to ask?"

'”Well, I was going to ask if you would like to come to help me train Jin and Kevin, but from the looks of it, you're going to be quite busy.

"Right, sorry about that. I don't think I'll be available for quite a while actually."

The operation was going to be a very risky one. There was a lot of planning involved, and it may take as little as a month's time to complete, to as far as two years time.

Tapping on the rubber on the table, Monica's eyes suddenly lit up as she thought of something. "...I think that we should probably grab a drink before I go, what do you say?"

'”...I like the sound of that.

"Great." Monica suddenly stood up from her seat. "Let's do it right now."

'”Wait, what? Now?

"Yup, wait for me Donna, I'm coming."

'”Wait, what are you t-

Ta Tak'”!

Before Donna could reply, Monica had already hung up. Grabbing a red jacket that was resting on the back of her seat, she quickly headed for the door.

"They won't complain no? Meh, who cares, I deserve a little break"

'”Clank!

Closing the door behind her, Monica quickly left her office.