Mika gazed at Shira’s motionless body.

However, he had no time to mourn as he picked up the presence of monsters slowly swarming around him. They must have noticed the death of their leader which was why most monsters of the jungle gathered at one spot.

"..."

Even after looking around or focusing all his senses, Mika could not find any traces of Dreyar, making him wonder if he was even here.

"Let’s see if he will react to this." Mika stated apathetically.

He carried Shira in his arms and suddenly disappeared.

"Enlarge."

With his wings spread, Mika was in the sky above the jungle. He summoned the Holy Spear and let it fall on the jungle.

The spear took on a size that could cover at least over thirty percent of the Great Jungle.

"..."

Patiently, Mika watched the large spear crush those beneath him.

The earth shook greatly for a moment.

"Nothing, huh?"

Mika waited for any reactions coming from the jungle but nothing happened.

He summoned the spear back, descended and put Shira down in the crater.

"?"

Instead of Dreyar’s attention, he caught the attention of the other monsters residing here.

Excalibur appeared as Mika sighed.

"Maybe fighting them will help me come up with my next step."

Thus, Mika charged at the monsters.

A few days later.

Olivia Rostanta, the queen of Rostanta, was in her mansion in Fuera, the capital of Rostanta. She was currently going through paperwork until someone knocked on her door.

"Have you read the newspaper yet?"

Ophelia, Olivia’s little sister, entered without waiting for a reply. She held the newspaper in her hand.

Her gaze was stern.

"Did something happen?" Olivia asked indifferently as her eyes were still glued to the documents on her table.

Ophelia did not say anything and just slammed a certain article on the table.

"..."

Taking her eyes off her work, Olivia glanced at the article.

"What...?"

She was genuinely shocked.

"The Great Jungle of Malnor was destroyed..." she read out loud in disbelief.

Her widened eyes scanned the whole article.

It just stated in an exaggerated manner that the Great Jungle was cleared by a mysterious individual who did not leave any traces behind aside from a mountain of monster corpses. Those monsters had wounds ranging from cuts, burns, dislocations and clean stabs.

The article noted additionally that the environment was also affected heavily by the apparent fight as roughly 60 to 70 percent of the whole jungle was destroyed.

However, the fact that most likely caught everyone’s attention was the discovery of the corpse belonging to the king of the jungle. The public theorized about the existence of the king as only selected people knew about it. And among the selected ones, only a few knew about the king’s strength.

Now, the article exposed everything there was to know about the king who was seemingly giving even Grand Order members trouble in a fight.

"..."

She gave Ophelia the article back as she leaned on her chair.

She sighed while she massaged her forehead.

"Just who could have been behind this...?" she muttered, sounding as if she was suffering from a headache.

Olivia did not even care about the article indirectly putting the Grand Order in a bad light.

"..."

Ophelia’s eyes narrowed.

"I have a speculation..." she stated.

"Yeah, I’m also connecting the dots right now." Olivia replied, shrugging her shoulders.

It had been two days since Ophelia and Elsa arrived here. And while Elsa was locking herself up in her room most of the time, Ophelia gave Olivia a full report about their time in Grat and the incident on the sea. Thus, Olivia had knowledge about Vira and Leviathan.

"The top A-rank demons were eliminated and there doesn’t exist a monster strong enough to take on the whole Great Jungle."

Olivia also excluded Grand Order members and humans altogether.

"Leviathan may be capable of such a feat but it’s a monster living in the sea." Olivia added.

"That leaves us with two options."

She raised two fingers.

"An S-rank demon finally arrived." she said, putting one finger down.

Ophelia turned slightly nervous.

"The second option sounds ridiculous at first but knowing him, he could actually pull it off."

Olivia put her other finger down.

"Mika was the culprit."

Mika single-handedly defeated Vira, the top A-rank demon and the former strongest being in the human realm, making him the strongest now aside from Leviathan.

"But I cannot understand his reason..." Olivia muttered pensively.

"Maybe that’s a part of it." Ophelia said with a slightly pitying gaze, flipping over the article.

"Hm?"

Olivia curiously took up the article again and read it.

This time, the article reported the mysterious case of desolated villages which were all located near each other. There were no signs of anyone being there. Only later, a few people discovered a grand pile of corpses buried together in a nearby forest.

But among those villages was one that was different. The central area of the village showed traces of a fight and there were proper graves for each villager.

"The deaths of numerous villages." Olivia read the headline again.

"So what about it? It’s indeed tragic and strange but what does that have to do with our previous conversation?" she asked slightly baffled.

"It’s his village." Ophelia replied instantly, averting her gaze lightly.

"!"

Olivia’s eyebrows were raised.

"I was there one time. That’s why I recognized it in the article." Ophelia added in a saddened tone.

"I see... I didn’t know..." Olivia said regretfully as she palmed her face partly.

"I assume that Mika was following the culprit to the Great Jungle where a fight between them occurred." Ophelia stated.

Ophelia clenched her fists.

"He must be suffering right now as we speak...!"

"Ophelia..."

Olivia looked softly at her little sister, trying to find a way to comfort her.

"I’m sorry... I will excuse myself now."

Ophelia then turned her back on her sister and left the room.

"..."

Olivia stared at the closed doors after she left.

She understood that Mika meant a lot to Ophelia and that she wanted to support him, however, no one knew where he was now.

"Will he show up for the meeting tomorrow...?" she muttered.

Considering the things he went through right now, she would not hold it against him if he did not appear.

She sighed again as she stood up.

"Maybe I should check on her, too."

Thus, she decided to take a small break from the paperwork and headed to a guestroom in her mansion.

"You awake, Elsa?" Olivia asked bluntly.

Since their arrival, Elsa had been depressed mostly due to Dura Waret, her grandmother, having been killed by Leviathan. Ophelia was affected by the incident, too, but she managed to move forward, albeit there were still moments when she wanted to be alone.

Olivia, who knew both Elsa and Dura for a long time, took the time to visit Elsa’s room every day to check up on her.

"..."

Elsa, who was staring blankly at the ceiling as she still lied in her bed, did not respond.

On the other side, Olivia knew that she was awake.

Still, she asked.

"Since you’re here, I hope you attend tomorrow’s meeting."

"..."

Olivia took one step back from the door.

"I understand that you’re having a hard time but you’re Elsa, aren’t you? It doesn’t fit your image if you continue to mourn for so long."

It was harsh but those two did not know how to communicate with each other in a different way.

"Your grandmother was a great and strong person. If it wasn’t for her, then the entire Grand Order would consist of only barbarians without manners, including myself. She was a person I respected a lot and I’m sure that the others respected at least as much as I did."

"..."

"But don’t you think that what you’re doing right now is disrespectful towards her?"

"...?"

Elsa turned her head to the door.

"She raised you and taught you everything you needed to know. Without her, you wouldn’t be the Elsa everyone knows."

Olivia was stern all the time.

"And yet, here you are. Dismissing her teachings of how a strong person should behave and turning into a shell, scared of moving forward without her on your side. In my eyes, that’s nothing but disrespectful."

"Your current state would only make her sad, don’t you think so, too?" Olivia added with a faint smirk.

For a while, she did not hear anything again.

"Well, I guess I will have to come back tomorrow as well to wake you up." she teased her.

"Shut up... No one asked..." Elsa replied quietly, sounding like she was pouting.

As Olivia left, she smiled at the door.

"Watch your mouth, crybaby."

She departed with those words.

Now, she had to prepare herself to greet the next wave of guests who traveled across the world for the upcoming Grand Order meeting tomorrow.

"..."

Watching out of a window, she recognized the appearance of the Bugar’s father-and-son duo.

"I can’t wait." she muttered in anticipation.

Tomorrow would be the day when everyone would gather, be it old or new faces.

It was the gathering of the strongest.