The Author's POV

Leviathan building, private training ground, Lock.

—Clang! —Clang!

A sword and two daggers interlocked together, and sparks flew in the air.

Shortly after, two figures appeared a couple of meters away from each other. Their breathing was even, indicating that their exchange was only a light one.

They were Kevin and Jin.

Staring at the daggers in his hands, Jin frowned.

Pointing his dagger at Kevin, he darkly said.

"What are you doing?"

His tone carried hints of anger.

"What do you mean?"

Kevin absentmindedly lowered his sword.

Glaring at Kevin, Jin put his daggers away.

"If you're not interested in sparring with me properly, then don't call me again. Don't waste my time like this."

Just before Kevin could reply, Jin turned around and left the training grounds.

Staring at Jin's back, Kevin let out a sigh.

"Haaa…"

Although he wanted to refute what Jin had said, he couldn't muster any words to argue back. That was because he was right.

He was not in his right mind yet.

Ever since the appearance of the red book, he could no longer focus on basic things such as training or studying.

He didn't know why, but the image of the red book never left his mind.

It was as though a curse had been implanted in his mind, making him think of it all the time.

"Just what are you…"

Walking towards the side of the training ground, Kevin's eyes paused on a certain book beside a bench.

Walking up to it, he slowly picked it up.

A day ago, after mustering his courage one more time, much to his relief, he realized that he could now touch the book without going through some crazy experience like before.

From the looks of things, it seemed as though it was a one-time thing.

Sitting on the bench beside the book, Kevin opened the book and read what was written on it.

===

The oppressive pressure bore down on every corner of the battlefield, and a thick wave of bloodlust began to spread in the air.

Staring at the humanoid figure in the distance, ***** face became dyed with unprecedented seriousness.

"Looks like it's about time I get serious..."

The climax of the second wave was just about to begin.

===

"Second wave? Climax? What is going on?…and just who are you?"

The more Kevin read the book, the more questions he had.

The book was a complete mystery to him. The more he had it with him, the bigger the mystery became.

For example, who was the figure depicted in the book? Kevin did try to look back at previous pages to see if he could read anything, but they were locked.

Regardless of how much Kevin tried to read the previous pages, the pages wouldn't budge.

Because of his apprehension about the book, Kevin did not experiment much with it. But from what he found out in the last day or so of having it was only visible to him. No one else could see it, further adding to the book's mystery.

Tracing his finger on the words written on the book, his finger paused on the blurred-out name on the page.

Many times he tried to figure out who the person was, but in the end, he couldn't. The only thing he knew about the person was that he was a male, and was currently participating in a war.

Turning the page of the book, Kevin was met with a blank page.

Tightening the grip of the book, he silently cursed.

"Damnit, if only I could read back."

As long as he could read back on the book, he'd be able to figure out the identity of the mysterious figure being depicted in the book.

Unfortunately, he couldn't. As though fate itself was laughing at him, the only thing he could see at the moment was what was happening to the person on the other side of the book.

"This is annoying."

Putting the book down, Kevin let out a tired sigh.

He believed that as long as he found out who the person in the book was, he'd be able to get a better understanding of what was happening to him.

TRIIIIING!

It was then that his watch suddenly vibrated.

Staring at the caller ID, Kevin realized that it was Emma.

Putting the book down, Kevin answered the call.

"Emma?"

***

Instead of returning to his dorm, Jin directly headed for the Lock's entrance.

Waiting for him outside of the academy campus was a black limousine.

"Young master."

A beautiful woman dressed in a black suit was greeting him outside of the limousine.

Bowing her head, she walked towards the passenger side of the limousine and opened the door for him.

Briefly glancing at the girl, Jin got in the limousine and thanked her.

"Thank you."

"It is my duty."

Once again, lowering her head, the girl closed the door and walked towards the other side of the limousine, where she entered and sat a few rows away from Jin.

Her name was Eleonore Plight, and she was Jin's bodyguard.

She was an <A> ranked hero that had worked for the Starlight Guild for seven years. Aside from raiding dungeons, her job was always to make sure that Jin did not leave the academy by himself.

Leaning forward towards the driver at the front of the car, Eleonore ordered.

"Please bring us back to the guild."

"Understood."

At Eleonore's orders, the driver pressed on the gas peddle, and the car soon sped towards the busy streets of Ashton city, towards the Starlight guild, the second-ranked guild in the human domain.

Once the car finally picked up speed, Eleonor leaned back on her seat and looked at Jin, who was casually staring at the scenery outside the window.

"Young master, I'm sorry for abruptly calling you like this, but this was at the request of your grandfather."

Giving Eleonore a sideway look, Jin turned his attention to the scenery outside the window and softly responded.

"I understand."

Unbothered by Jin's distant attitude, Eleonor continued.

"Young master, I would like to remind you that today's meeting is a secret and that you must not tell anyone else about what is going to happen."

Closing his eyes, Jin silently nodded.

"I understand."

From the very moment his grandfather had called him, Jin knew that whatever was going to happen in the meeting, it would be imperative.

After all, his grandfather rarely showed himself nowadays. He would only show himself when there was an important announcement that would decide the family's fate or when it was his birthday.

Taking a glass of champagne beside him, Jin twirled the cup before taking a drink.

He had a feeling that today's meeting would change his fate completely.

***

"Move back for now."

The moment the demon appeared in the air, I knew that the situation was about to take a drastic turn.

The balance that we have kept ever since the beginning of the second wave was soon going to be broken.

For now, the best option would be to retreat further back.

"Guys, move back to the third line of defense."

The residual magic released from the demon in the air was extremely dangerous.

Perhaps I could withstand it, but the others were still a bit too weak to handle the residual magic that came from what seemed to be a Viscount ranked demon.

They might suffer serious internal injuries.

"Okay."

Thankfully the others listened to me and did as I ordered.

Turning my head, I repeated.

"Make sure you guys don't move towards the second line. It's too dangerous for you at the moment."

There were three defensive lines, and at the moment, we were stationed at the second.

There wasn't a particular reason why we were stationed on the second line. It was completely random.

Not that it mattered since the truly strong demons were being handled by the people at the top of the tower and the first defensive line where the strongest orcs stood.

The second defensive line was mainly to clean up the demons that weren't worth taking note of or somehow slipped through.

The third defensive line was there for extra reassurance.

So far, they had still not done anything as we had cleaned most of the demons that had managed to slip through.

It had to be noted that, although the third defensive line was the one that faced the least number of demons, it was the most crucial line.

That was because right behind them were the dwarves and elves who were shooting spells at the demons from above.

Unlike the orcs, they were powerless in close range.

BOOOM—!

Just as I expected, when I told the others to retreat, a terrifying shockwave swept the whole battlefield. The ground trembled, and a strong gale of wind swept past everyone. Some of the weaker individuals were directly sent flying.

—BANG! —BANG!

What followed after was another wave of demons crashing towards the first line of defense.

This time they were a lot bolder and bloodthirsty than before.

Before long, more and more demons broke through the first line of defense and quickly headed for our direction.

There were even a couple of titled demons among the demons that had managed to breakthrough.

The situation was dire, and I knew that I could no longer hold my strength back.

Without hesitation, I drew four rings in the air and redirected them towards the others, aiding them in their retreat.

Vooom—! Vooom—!

"Hurry up to the third line!"

I shouted at them.

Unlike them, I chose to remain in the second line of defense.

As I drew more circles in the air, the mana inside my body started to deplete rapidly. Fortunately, I had enough mana recovery potions with me.

I didn't use [Ring of vindication] before to focus on my swordsmanship wholeheartedly. But that was before, now was different.

Putting the blunt sword into my dimensional space, I proceeded to take a newer sword.

…like hell would I gamble my own life during a war.

Although I tried my best to listen to what Malvil was saying, I knew that something like this was bound to happen at the end of the day.

There was a time for everything, and now was not the time for me to care about my training.

WIIIIIIING—!

It was then that I suddenly felt a subtle stinging sensation on my face. Turning my head, I saw a demon fiercely approaching my way.

I knew that this was no regular demon from the pressure released by the demon's body; I could tell it was a titled one. To my luck, it was only a Baron ranked one, something that my abilities could handle.

Raising its hands, a vicious attack rapidly approached my direction.

Unprecedented seriousness clouded my face as my toes pressed onto the ground. The ground beneath cracked with a 'bang', and I narrowly avoided the attack by a hairbreadth, much to the demon's surprise.

The demon that had attacked me was quick to recover once it noticed its attack missing, expanding its wings, the demon's blood-red eyes locked onto me. Then, flapping its enormous wings, the demon disappeared from where it was standing, leaving behind an afterimage.

Coldly looking at the demon, four rings suddenly appeared from behind me. Redirecting them towards my right with my finger, I raised my hand.

"Freeze."

The moment the demon reappeared in front of me, clenching my fists, a sudden gravitational pull discharged from the rings.

The demon froze in mid-air.

Without wasting any time, I placed my hand on the sword's sheath.

The second movement of the [Keiki style] : Horizon splitting slash

—Click!

In a flash, a head soon rolled on the ground. Staring at the head, I knew that it was not over.

Spurt—!

Looking at the body of the demon in front of me, my hand pierced through its chest. Once my hand reached deep enough, feeling something, I retrieved my hand back, and a black orb soon appeared in my hand.

It was a demon core.

Putting it in my dimensional space, the demon's body slowly started to crumble right before my eyes.

"I missed this feeling...."