"Are you guys ready?"

Kevin looked around the room and then asked.

Presently, Ren, Melissa, Amanda, Jin, and the other members of Ren's mercenary group were all standing in front of him.

They were currently making preparations to return to earth, but because the portal had been deactivated for safety reasons, they could only do so with Kevin's assistance.

"We should be."

Ren spoke, glancing around to ensure that everyone was present.

"Although I would have liked to remain here, I have something to do in the human domain, so everyone can only follow me back."

"Mhm."

Kevin nodded his head silently when he heard Ren's words.

The difference in time flow, while beneficial, also presented some challenges, and so should be viewed as having an equal amount of potential disadvantages as advantages.

Particularly so if one was from Earth or a human being.

'With time flowing slower here, one might find themselves aging rapidly.'

In spite of the fact that Ren and Kevin only differed in age by a matter of a couple of months, the fact that Ren had spent some time in Immorra meant that he could now be considered to be older than Kevin.

The same went for Emma and the others.

It was strange to think about the fact that they were now technically older than he was, despite technically being younger.

'What a mess.'

The point that was being made was that spending an excessive amount of time in Immorra was not necessarily a good thing. They were effectively running the risk of aging at a rate that was significantly faster than average humans on earth.

In the time it took for one year to pass on earth, ten years would have been up and running in Immorra.

It was because of this particular factor that no one present ever entertained the idea of concealing members of their family or close social circle here.

"Since everyone is ready, I'm going to start the portal."

Currently, he could feel eyes glaring at the back of his head, but he pretended not to notice.

Taking his mind away from the matter, Kevin took out a core from his dimensional space and crushed it in his hand.

A scene that was all too familiar to Kevin began to materialize in front of everyone as the mana from the core began to disperse into the room.

This resulted in the unavoidable thickening of the air, through which strands of mana could be observed floating.

After a short period of time, a white ball materialized in the middle of the room, and the mana that had been dispersed throughout the space began to swirl around it. After exactly one minute had passed, a portal formed in front of everyone.

The room became deafeningly quiet when the portal appeared.

"I never get tired of seeing this."

Ren mumbled in surprise, blinking his eyes a couple of times, seemingly trying to imprint the scene inside of his mind.

"Well? What are you waiting for? Let's get going."

***

The moment I emerged from the portal, the first thing I did was check on the state of the headquarters.

Given the number of procedures that dwarves had performed in this location, I dreaded the worst.

Messy floor? Broken furniture? Torn couches? ...was what I expected to see the moment I set foot in my headquarters, but...

"You know what? "It doesn't look half bad"

I was pleasantly surprised to find the room in pristine condition.

Even though there were a lot of wires sprawled all over the floor, it wasn't nearly as cluttered as I had anticipated it to be. It was clear that the dwarves had cleaned up after themselves.

"Ugh, my stomach."

"It's bright."

"We're back."

As I continued to look around, one by one, people began to appear from the portal that was behind me.

Because Kevin was familiar with the precise coordinates of my warehouse, he was able to teleport us here.

In the end, Kevin was the very last person to emerge from the portal after a total of ten minutes had elapsed since the opening of the portal.

"Are you sure it's okay to leave the dwarves there unsupervised?"

I was able to make out Kevin's voice as he emerged from the portal.

"Don't worry about it."

I waved my hand at him.

"Unlike us, the dwarves have a much bigger life span. Our absence won't hurt them much, plus, I've got Silug taking care of the matter."

He was dependable enough to handle such insignificant concerns on his own.

Furthermore, with Suriol around and contracted to me, there was nothing that I had to fear.

He would make direct contact with me through the dwarves if something was up.

"I think it's time for me to go back. I'll have to get ready for the assembly."

Sadly, there was no time for me to rest.

I knew that I needed to get back home quickly because the assembly was going to start in approximately two hours, and it would take at least fifteen minutes for me to get back home.

As the truce between the Union and the Monolith was set to expire in fourteen days, fighting between the two sides was unavoidable.

'No, this isn't even just about the Union anymore.'

It came down to the Monolith versus the entirety of the human domain.

Douglas, along with a great number of other important figures who had never been seen before, would emerge from their hiding places at this time in order to fight the Monolith.

...All of this was unavoidable. It was especially so since Jezebeth had set a decree to conquer earth as soon as possible.

The war was inevitable.

"Ren"

My assumptions led me to believe that the Monolith most likely already had a Mana compressor operational by this point in time. But not just any mana compressor; rather, one that operated on a massive scale.

one that was enormous enough to completely drain the mana of the earth and transform it into demonic energy.

Its appearance would signal the beginning of the end.

"Ren."

With demonic energy permeating every part of the world and dungeon desyncs occurring at an increasing rate, it was reasonable to assume that the human domain will be confronted with a terrifying catastrophe that they would struggle to handle, and...

"Ren!"

When I turned around, I saw Amanda standing behind me with her mouth closed and her jaw set in a stony expression. She was staring at me silently.

I knew from this expression that I was in trouble.

"Yea?"

"You...nevermind."

Amanda sighed and shook her head.

She then brushed her hair behind her ear before handing me her phone.

"Your mom just called. She wants to speak to you."

"Huh?"

As I looked at the phone that Amanda was holding, my face began to change in an odd way.

Call me?

Why couldn't she just call me on my phone?

"Yes?"

Ren.

My mother's familiar voice echoed from the speaker of the phone.

"What is it, mom? Why did you call Amanda, and how did you know that I was back?"

That's because Amanda sent me a message.

"Oh, did she?"

I glared at Amanda from the side.

She ignored me and fiddled with her hair. My mouth twitched.

'Is this how you're going to be?'

Fine.

"Is there anything that you would like from me, mom?"

Yes, actually. Edward, Amanda's father has contacted me and told me to tell you that he will be leaving in an hour and a half, so you better hurry home or he'll leave you.

"Ugh."

I groaned out loud.

Did he seriously tell my mom to tell me something like this? Couldn't he have just messaged me? It's not like my phone won't receive the message when I return to earth.

'This man is becoming pettier and pettier.'

"Alright, I'll be there shortly."

Okay, I'll wait for you. Please get home safely.

"Sure."

The call ended after that.

I extended my hand and handed Amanda the phone. After staring at her for a moment, I sighed and slouched my shoulders.

"Let's go. I'll deal with you later."

"Sure."

We left shortly after that. Of course, before leaving, I made sure to tell the others to get prepared for what was to come.

The next year or so was going to be a hard one.

***

Cygnus A, Galaxy.

A figure sat down in a gracious manner on the grass of a remote, verdant planet as he focused intently on the towering mountains in the distance that tore through the large clouds in the sky. A gentle breeze passed over his body.

The figure was none other than Jezebeth, who mumbled.

"...How nice would it be to live here."

The tone of his voice was tinged with melancholy, while his eyes were transfixed on the serene landscape before him.

The landscape was among the most beautiful he had ever seen. The grass was luxuriantly green, the trees were dense and healthy, the sky was azure blue, the air was crisp, and the nearby river was flawlessly clear.

Most importantly, it was quiet. There was only the sound of nature flowing through Jezebeth's ears as he peacefully sat on the patch of grass.

Extending his hand, Jezebeth stared at his hand and mumbled.

"I'm tired."

Conquering planets, destroying worlds, killing races, Jezebeth was tired of all of it.

It was something he had done for as long as he could recall, and he had grown tired of it. He desired to spend as much time as possible admiring the view before him and basking in the warm sunlight coming from the sun in the sky.

He didn't want to leave this place.

He really didn't.

Nonetheless, Jezebeth knew that he couldn't stop.

He had a goal.

The Akashic records.

Before then, everything was secondary. Jezebeth knew that he was nearing the end of his solitary, thorn-filled journey.

He was finally going to get the answers he so desperately wanted.

The answers to his existence.

"Just a little bit more."

Jezebeth knew that he only had to endure a little bit more before he could finally enjoy this scene to his heart's content.

Everything that he had planned had been put into motion, and now that he had dealt with his primary obstacle, Jezebeth felt as though he was closer than he had ever been to achieving his objective.

So long as nothing deviated from his vision, the records were as good as his.

Jezebeth's surroundings were suddenly hit with a gust of wind at the same time that a skinny figure suddenly materialized and sat on the patch of grass next to him.

The focus of Jezebeth's eyes never left the surroundings far off in the distance, in spite of the figures' sudden appearance.

The world was engulfed in a peaceful silence as neither of the two spoke.