The Author’s POV

Chapter 281: Return [2]

"Haaa…haaa…khaaa!" 

Slumping on the ground, I greedily breathed in the oxygen in the air. Blood dripped on the ground as I bled from all of the orifices on my face. 

'Damn it, that was no joke'

An <SS> ranked individual's pressure was no joke. For a brief moment of time, I thought that I was going to die just from his stare alone. 

Fortunately for me, he was too far from where I was. By the time he had arrived, I was already long gone. 

Still, just the recollection of the pressure he emitted made me tremble in fear. 

It was scary. 

"Khh" 

Groaning, I lifted my head and looked around.

"Haaa, guess things worked out." 

I breathed a sigh of relief. 

Once I looked up, I realized that this was the same room as before, the private portal room. Thanks to the Monolith ring that I had taken from Luther, I was able to teleport to this room. 

The room was still the same as I had left it, as the portal was ready to go. 

'Thank god, things worked out.'

Although I could've used this portal to create an explosion, had I done so, I wouldn't have been able to escape.

Supporting myself with the aid of the wall, I weakly stood up. Staring at the portal, my heart was surprisingly calm. 

I was just one step away from freedom, something that I had been wishing for the past eight months. Yet, at the crucial moment, just when I was about to take a step towards freedom, to my surprise, rather than feeling excited or happy, I felt extremely calm.

Perhaps it was because of all of that happened during the past eight months, or because of the scare I just got, but I wasn't particularly excited about my escape.

It felt as though this was the outcome that was supposed to happen. 

"hmm?" 

Disrupting me out of my calm was a sudden fluctuation. The fluctuation was so strong that the ground started to shake. 

"Shit, the core is about to explode." 

Realizing the urgency of the situation, I decided to hurry up. 

I wasn't necessarily worried about someone coming to get me since by now the others were busy trying to contain the explosion, but even then, judging from the ripple just now, the portal was about to explode any minute now. 

For my own good, it was better to leave before it exploded. 

"Huuu…" 

Moving towards the portal, I took a deep breath. Turning back, and staring in the direction of where the general portals were, I raised my hand and flipped my middle finger. 

As I did, I swore out loud. 

"The explosion is only a little taste of what will come in the future you fuckers!" 

For what they've done to me these pasts eight months, I swore to myself that I would do anything within my power to destroy them.

That was a promise. 

Glancing in the direction of where the energy was coming from for the last time, I turned around and stepped into the portal. 

Once again, a strange feeling hit me, and my body slowly disappeared. 

SHUUUUA—!

Finally, I was free. 

***

At the same time. 

"Damn it." 

Standing in the sky, Mo Jinhao cursed out loud. His ashen grey colored eyes coldly stared at the portal in front of him. In the middle of it was a core that emitted tremendous ripples of energy that spread throughout the distance, dying the sky in the color black. 

Kacha—! 

Suddenly, black lightning bolts crackled around the core, as the fluctuations started to intensify. As the fluctuations intensified, Mo Jinhao's face couldn't help but change as even he felt threatened by the energy that was being emitted by the core. 

Lowering his head, he looked at Tasos next to him. 

"Tasos, inject more mana." 

"I'm trying." 

Tasos replied back as the hue revolving around his body intensified. 

Crack—! 

It was then that they both heard a subtle cracking sound coming from the core below them. The fluctuations ran even more wildly, and a thick black tangible energy began to spread outwards of the core. 

Suddenly, the black tangible energy that was being emitted from the core stopped mid-air, almost as if it was frozen in time. Following this, the energy rapidly compressed together into the core before, deathly silence permeated across the surroundings. 

"Brace yourselves!" 

Mu Jinhao cried out as his robes fluttered widely in the air.

With both hands on the barrier in front of him, a majestic aura sprang out from his body. Following him, multiple different auras sprang up, with Tasos's energy being the most powerful of the lot. 

Then, the explosion happened. 

BOOOOOOOOM—! 

Like a thunderclap, a deafening sound rang out.

The land began to tremble and an incomparably vicious aura began to spread out from the core at unprecedented speeds, spreading throughout the whole barrier that was surrounding it. The energy that was spreading out from the sphere was so strong that it could've easily reduced an <S> ranked individual into powder. 

"Hueeeek!

With both hands on the sphere, Mo Jinhao's face paled rapidly as the mana inside of his body quickly depleted itself. Next to him, Tasos was not doing much better as his mana was depleting at an even faster rate.

Regarding the others, nothing needed to be said as they quickly dropped like flies and spat mouthfuls of blood before fainting. 

"Damn it, how fucking useless." 

Staring at the scene from above, Tasos couldn't help but curse out loud. The more people fainted the bigger the burden he and Mo Jinhao bore. To make matters worse, he was already running low on mana due to the fight he had with Amon. 

This was the worst-case scenario. 

Crack—!

Suddenly, Tasos heard a slight cracking sound coming from the barrier. A horrified look appeared on his face as he looked at Mo Jinhao. 

Staring back at him, Mo Jinhao's face became extremely grave. 

Crack—!

Another cracking sound rang out. Following this, more and more cracks started to appear on the surface of the barrier. 

"Shit!" 

Tasos cursed as blood started to flow down from his nostrils. Turning towards Mo Jinhao, he cried out. 

"Vice-Leader, what should we do? At this rate, the barrier won't hold out for long!" 

"…I know." 

Solemnly staring at the cracking barrier, seemingly having come up with a decision, much to Tasos's surprise, Mo Jinhao suddenly closed his eyes. 

A gloomy expression flashed across his eyes. 

"To think that I would have to resort to this." 

Mo Jinhao inhaled deeply.

Opening his eyes, and raising both hands, terrifying energy suddenly erupted from his body, completely dying the sky in the color red. Then, clenching his fists, the red glow contracted rapidly until a large red staff appeared in his hand. 

OMMM—! 

Raising the staff in the air, he lightly tapped it in the air. It was a seemingly simple tap, yet, the moment he tapped with the staff in the air, the space around it started to collapse as a red glow enveloped the barrier surrounding the portal, before contracting fully creating another barrier. 

Once the new barrier formed, the previous barrier completely broke apart, and the remaining energy from the explosion flushed towards the red barrier. 

Fortunately, with the previous barrier managing to absorb a lot of the energy from the explosion, the red barrier was able to withstand the impact. 

Observing from the sky like an immortal, Mo Jinhao suddenly clenched his hand and shouted. 

"Contract." 

His eternal voice spread towards the surroundings, and  the red barrier rapidly contracted. Sweat dripped down from the side of his face, as his face distorted rapidly. 

Within seconds, the barrier contracted until it was the size of a football. Inside of it, terrifying energy fluctuated. 

"Come." 

Waving his hand, the football-sized barrier quickly arrived before Mo Jinhao. Waving his staff, the small ball quickly flew into the sky up above. Staring at the ball in the sky, blood started dripping from Mo Jinhao's eyes as his complexion paled significantly. 

—Spurt! 

Suddenly, he spat out a mouthful of blood startling everyone near him. 

"Vice-Leader!" 

"Don't come…" 

Just as the others were about to approach him to make sure he was okay, Mo Jinhao raised his hand to block them. 

"I'm f—Huaak!!" 

Spitting another mouthful of blood, Mo Jinhao weakly raised his head in the air. Once he could no longer see the ball in the sky, he softly mumbled. 

"Release." 

BOOOOOOOOM—! 

Following his words, another terrifying explosion rang out. Clouds and wind surged as the explosion occurred, completely enveloping the sky in flames. The ground trembled uncontrollably, and staring at the scene from below, it felt as though the entire world was about to end. 

It looked like the apocalypse had descended. 

This continued for the next ten minutes before the sky cleared up, and once again the warm sunlight came pouring down. 

Gazing at the sky from below, no one spoke as absolute silence enveloped the surroundings. 

"D-id we do it?" 

The first one to break the silence was Tasos who stared at the sky with utter disbelief.

A cold chill passed his spine as she recalled the explosion that had just occurred. The energy that came from it made him tremble in fear. It was so powerful. 

—Spurt! 

Startling Tasos out of his daze was the sound of blood splurting on the ground. Turning around, he shouted. 

"Vice-leader." 

Instantly, he appeared next to Mo Jinhao and supported him with his body. Accepting Tasos's help, Mo Jinhao looked extremely frail, as it looked as though he had aged several years. 

"Vice-leader, are you okay? Is everything alright?" 

"I'm…cough…cough…fine."

Weakly replied Mo Jinhao as he descended towards the ground with Tasos.

Upon landing on the ground, Tasos offered Mo Jinhao to sit down, but he promptly rejected. Turning around and staring at the scene, Mo Jinhao looked at Tasos and ordered.

"Tasos, I want you to ask someone to report to me the losses that we've incurred from this ordeal, and…" Pausing, Mo Jinhao's face twisted savagely. "I want you to tell me who the one responsible for this is!" 

Even though Mo Jinhao was extremely weakened, and severely injured, as he spat those words, Tasos and the people around him couldn't help but tremble slightly. 

"U-understood" 

Instantly, everyone got to work and started roaming around the Monolith to get an approximate idea of what had happened. They also checked the cameras and surveillance system to get a better idea of what happened. 

The members of the Monolith were efficient.

Within half an hour, they had already managed to calculate the losses they incurred as well as found out the identity of the individual responsible for the tragedy. 

Approaching Mo Jinhao and Tasos, was a tall middle-aged man. Although he was much weaker than the likes of them, he had the aura of an <S> rank. 

Stopping before them, he politely bowed and handed them a report. 

"Sir, we have completed the reports." 

"Thank you." 

Taking the report from the individual's hands, Mo Jinhao's cold eyes swept through the reports. As he was reading, the individual that handed him the reports started speaking. 

"Sir, the losses are heavy. Almost half of the building is destroyed, and we've lost a major part of our force. The estimated damage is around 10 billion U."

Listening to the individual speaking whilst looking through the file, Mo Jinhao asked. 

"What's the approximate loss of our force?" 

"Eight S ranks, twenty-five A ranks, and over a hundred B ranks and below." 

"I see…" 

Silence swept the area. After a while, Mo Jinhao's face stopped towards a certain file. Glancing at the individual, he asked. 

"876? Tell me more about him."

Lightly glancing at the paper, swallowing a mouthful of saliva, the middle-aged man carefully said. 

"He's the one responsible for the explosion." 

"Hm?" Putting the papers down, a terrifying pressure suddenly enveloped the surroundings. Glaring at the individual, Mo Jinhao coldly spoke,"…So you're saying that the person responsible for all of this is a product of one of our experiments?" 

Under Mo Jinhao's terrifying pressure, the individual could barely breathe. However, mustering every last ounce of his strength, he weakly nodded his head. 

"Y-yes" 

"I see." 

Kracka—! 

The pressure suddenly disappeared. Waving his hand, the sound of bones breaking rang out, as a body crashed towards a wall in the distance. 

Crumbling the paper that contained the information regarding 876 in his hands, Mo Jinhao muttered underneath his breath. 

"876…876…I will make sure you pay for what you've done. No matter where you are, I'll make sure to spare nothing to hunt you down!" 

Every one of his words contained unimaginable amounts of hatred. 

***

Darkness. 

For an unknown period of time, only darkness enveloped my vision. I couldn't hear, feel, taste, nothing. 

Like a pebble drifting in the endless void, my existence felt insignificant. 

Thankfully, this seemingly endless darkness did not go on forever as it slowly started receding. All my senses soon returned to me, as my mind cleared up. 

"khh.." 

A groan escaped from my lips. 

Opening my eyes, the first thing I saw was a clear blue sky. The warm sunlight coming from the sun gently enveloped my body as I weakly sat up. 

"Cough…cough…" 

Coughing weakly, I took out a couple of potions from my bag. Without wasting any second, I quickly downed them. Instantly, all of my wounds started to heal. Including the burns. 

"Where am I?" 

Once I was done taking the potions, lifting my head up, I looked towards my surroundings. To my surprise, I found out that I was in the middle of a vast plain.

With sparse trees in the distance and mountains in the background of the scenery, it finally dawned on me that I was no longer in the Monolith. 

"Khuk."

Biting my lips, my body trembled slightly. The side of my cheeks became warm, as small droplets began falling towards my hands. 

"I-m free…" 

I hoarsely muttered. 

Breathing in the fresh air, and realizing that I was no longer inside of that hell hole, for the next ten minutes, I just blankly stared at the scenery in front of me, trying my best to engrave it into my mind. 

For the first time in a long time, I felt that the world truly looked beautiful. 

"Huuuu." 

Exhaling out loud, and wiping the side of my eyes, I tapped on my bracelet and took out my phone.

Turning on the phone and scrolling through my contacts, I suddenly caught a glimpse of my reflection.

"Is this how I look now?" 

Touching my face, the only word that came to my mind was 'hideous'.

Although my burns were slowly healing, they were still there, and even then, the scars on my face did nothing to help me rebuke that thought. Clenching my fists, I lowered my head and muttered. 

"I can't let the others see me like this." 

For sure the others would probably not mind my current appearance, but I minded. I didn't want them to see the state that I was in. Especially Nola. 

She couldn't. 

Thus, after a while, I pressed on a certain contact and called them. As I called the number, I made sure to call using an untraceable line. 

—Hello? 

Soon, a familiar voice rang inside of my ears.

"Ah…" 

Opening my mouth, for the first few seconds, no words came out of my mouth as the only thing that came out from my mouth was a strained noise. 

Opening my mouth again, I tried to speak, but once again, no words came out.  It felt as though a lump was stuck inside of my mouth preventing me from speaking. 

—Hello? Who is this? 

Not hearing a response, the person on the other side of the phone started to get annoyed. 

—If you don't answer, I'm going to hang up. 

'No,no,no, don't hang up.'

Were the words that I wanted to say, but yet again, no voice escaped from my mouth. 

—Alright, since you're not talking, I'm hanging up. 

Seeing that Smallsnake was about to hang up, swallowing a mouthful of saliva, and calming myself down, I finally spoke up. 

This time, words finally escaped from my lips. 

"Hey, Smallsnake….it's me."