The Author's POV

According to the information that was provided to me by the demons, there were a total of eight treasuries situated across the surface of this planet.

'It's possible that there are more, but that's all the information that the demons shared with me. It remains to be seen in the future whether or not that is the truth or not.'

"Is this the main castle?"

I came to a halt to look into the distance, where an enormous and eerie black castle appeared in my vision.

A gentle breeze that persisted in the air caused several slender bridges, which were connected to large rocky and steep cliffs, to sway lazily in the air.

The bridges established a connection between the cliffs and the castle, which was perched in the middle of a rocky pillar that was surrounded on all sides by nothing but emptiness. Its imposing structure and design filled me with admiration.

It was nothing short of a structural masterpiece.

'...Fortunately, I can now fly. If not for that fact, I would've had trouble crossing those bridges.'

The thought of crossing those thin bridges that connected to the castle sent shivers down my spine. The scenery was not for the faint of heart.

Turning to look at the demon beside me, I nudged with my head.

"Alright, bring me in."

"Yes."

With a flap of his wings, the demon flew in the air and went straight for the castle. Staring at his figure from where I stood, I turned to look at Amanda beside me. A complicated look appeared on my face.

"...You won't have trouble getting over there, will you?"

"No."

Amanda gently shook her head before she removed a small necklace from her neck and put it away. A powerful energy fluctuation spread across the area we were in and her body started to gently levitate.

I grew bitter when I saw this scene.

"Why did you hide the fact that you've broken through to <S-> rank?"

To be honest, it came as a shock to me to know that she had already broken to <S-> rank before I knew it. I only found out recently, and it came to me as a great surprise.

"Come, let's get going."

Amanda's soft voice echoed inside my head. I shook my head and gently floated in the air. I followed her after that.

The distance between the cliff and the castle wasn't too far. It took us just about five minutes to get there.

"It's bigger than I thought."

It wasn't until my feet were firmly planted on the ground that I realized how massive the castle really was. The height of the castle, which was well over five hundred feet, was comparable to that of a typical skyscraper.

The entire area around the castle was shrouded in a black mist, making the castle look extremely eerie.

The demon from earlier was there, and he was waiting for Amanda and me in front of a large and imposing door.

"Please follow me."

The demon appeared reluctant to look directly at me, as evidenced by the way he bowed his head. Exchanging glances with Amanda, we both entered the premise of the castle.

The exterior appearance of the castle was strikingly different from the appearance of the interior of the castle, which featured extremely high ceilings, luxurious decorations, paintings, and statues that gave the impression that the space was extremely clean and well organized.

'Sort of reminds me of my mercenary headquarters.'

I had lost count of the number of times I had been insulted because of its outward presentation.

"We're here."

Before I knew it, we had arrived in front of a massive metal gate that reached all the way to the top of the building.

The surface of the metal door appeared to be engraved with a number of different symbols and runes that were unknown to me and based on the material that was used, I could more or less tell that I couldn't force my way through the door using brute force.

"This makes things a little bit complicated..."

'I had come with the intention of just breaking through the door and plundering whatever was on the other side, but seeing how thick the gate seems to be, I don't think this is an option anymore...'

I turned to look at the demon that had led us here.

"How do you open the door?"

"Eh?"

The demon looked at me with a confused look.

My eyes narrowed, and I pointed at the large gate in front of me.

"Did you not hear me? How do I open the gate?"

"This..."

The demon showed a troubled look as he looked toward his right and left. In the end, realizing that there was no one present, he trembled slightly as he lowered his head and mumbled.

"This servant doesn't know...only the previous leader knows how to open the door. My ranking is far too low to kno-"

"That's enough."

I raised my hand to stop the demon from speaking.

Sparing him a glance, I turned to focus my attention back on the large gate.

'His words make sense. He is only a Count ranked demon, there's no way he'd know how to open the door.'

Fortunately, I wasn't completely unprepared as I slowly took out a small orb from my dimensional space.

"This..."

The air around the room instantly started to quiver as a burst of demonic energy exploded into the air, making the demon fall to his knees.

He wasn't the only one affected as Amanda's face paled considerably as she stumbled a couple of steps back.

Ignoring the commotion going on around me, I calmly observed the orb that was in my hands.

"I'm glad I didn't kill you."

I then brought the orb to my mouth, much to Amanda's shock.

"Ren you...!"

"Don't worry."

I reassured her and put the orb inside my mouth before swallowing.

Gulp-!

'Been a while since I've done this...'

"Ukh."

As I swallowed the orb, tears formed in the corner of my eyes, and I felt a tightening in the back of my throat. Grabbing a bottle of water from my dimension space, I chugged it down in one swift motion, making it easier for the orb to move down my throat.

"Haaaa..."

Fully swallowing the orb inside of my mouth, I massaged my throat for a bit.

'It hurts...'

"You okay?"

Amanda approached me as she bent down to look at me from below.

Massaging my throat, I nodded.

"I'm fine. It just hurts a little. "

I then coughed a couple of times before finally calming down.

After that, I took a deep breath and muttered.

"Come out."

"Ren?"

My sudden words seemed to have confused Amanda as she cocked her head to the side and looked at me with a confused look.

I gave her a slight nod to indicate that everything was fine, and then I channeled some of my mana and directed it toward the core that was still present within my body.

As soon as I directed my mana toward the core, the core began to shake, and it didn't take long before it began to pulse inside my body.

Opening my mouth, I once again spoke.

"I said come out."

This time my tone was a lot deeper than before.

Just as Amanda was about to speak again, the air around us started to stir and a figure slowly formed in front of me.

"Hiiek!"

The sudden appearance of the figure prompted the count-ranked demon to shriek in terror and retreat a few paces.

Extending his hand, he muttered in a trembling voice.

"Y...your Dukeship!"

A subtle smile formed on my face as I stared at the figure that had morphed before me.

Opening my mouth, I greeted him.

"It's been a while."

***

Monolith headquarters.

Hemlock's gaze passed through the glass panels of his office and stared into the distance. For an unknown period of time, he continued to stare into the distance without saying or doing anything.

It was only after someone entered the room that he finally moved.

"How are the preparations?"

"Everything is going smoothly."

Mo Jinhao made himself at home as he sat down on one of the leather couches of the office.

Leaning his hand against the side of the couch, his brows furrowed.

"...Actually, not everything is proceeding smoothly. A mysterious entity has eliminated all of our spies operating in Ashton city."

Hemlock showed no reaction at Jinhao's words.

He then nodded his head slowly.

"I understand. What about the other cities?"

"Everything is going smoothly there."

"I see..."

Hemlock once again nodded his head as he turned his head to gaze into the distance and mumbled something.

"From this alone, we can assume that whoever is responsible for the killings of our spies is someone from Ashton city."

"Ha?"

"Whoever is responsible for all of this is from Ashton city."

Hemlock repeated after seeing Jinhao's confused look.

"Ah, right."

Mo Jinhao agreed with the assessment as he nodded his head.

Interlocking his hands behind his back, Hemlock asked.

"Is there anything else that is known about the entity? Is it just one person? Multiple people? ...How does he fight?"

"From what we've gathered, the entity seems to be someone who uses the sword. This isn't one hundred percent confirmed as he eliminates all of his victims after killing them. However, since the people he's killing are contractees, after contacting the demons who were contracted with them, we've managed to figure out that he seems to be someone who uses the sword."

"Sword user..."

Hemlock mumbled under his breath.

"What's on the list of the individuals he has killed? "

Mo Jinhao's brows furrowed.

Extending his hand, a journal materialized in his hands.

Carefully opening the book, he read through the contents before answering.

"So far, most of the individuals killed are high ranking members of the Union. There are a couple of low ranking members who are also on the list."

Hemlock tapped his thumb against his hand.

Falling into deep contemplation, his brows relaxed for a moment and he asked one more question.

"What is the Union's reaction to what is happening?"

"Nothing."

Mo Jinhao replied as his eyes narrowed.

"...In fact, the Union seems to be covering up whatever is happening. From the looks of it, they are either working with the person responsible for this or don't want to let the public know about the fact that they are riddled with spies."

"Right..."

Hemlock finally turned around and looked at Mo Jinhao. He then started to share his conclusions.

"From the list, we can gather that he's killed a couple of <S> ranked individuals. From this alone, we can determine that the culprit is someone of that rank. This makes things much easier for us to narrow down since there aren't many <S> rankers in Ashton city."

"He also seems to be a sword user, which further narrows down our search to at most a couple of hundred individuals. However, seeing how he has managed to kill so many <S> rankers, it is likely that he is a ranked Hero. This once again narrows our search significantly. "

"If we also take into account the possibility of the Union possibly having a hand with this, it only leaves me with a couple of individuals in my mind."

Listening to Hemlock's words, Mo Jinhao's back straightened.

His face turned extremely serious.

"Do share."

Closing his eyes for a brief moment, Hemlock's face turned extremely cold.

"Taking into account everything that we know so far, several people come to mind. However, if I had to make a rough guess, I would say that the culprit is either 876, Ren Dover, or...Kevin Voss."s