AT THE SAME TIME, AT THE LANDING ZONE OF THE ALPHA BASE...

Elena had just got inside the helicopter that had been waiting for her arrival.

"Good morning ma'am, I hope your business here was successful as always?" The pilot humbly asked as Elena stepped inside the chopper.

"Successful, my ass! Stop asking stupid questions and get moving!" She yelled at the pilot and furiously started dialling someone's number on her old and rarely used communicator, that only a few people knew about.

Within seconds the holographic face of a masked man appeared before hers, "What is it? If it's another one if your requests to get you a black beast crystal then you can forget about it. I'm not going to throw away the life of my men, just because your family is my business partner."

"Good morning to you too a*shole, and no, this isn't related to that matter, but it's something you should be worried about," Elena informed him and then proceeded to retell the entire tale of what happened in the conference room.

"Ah... I knew the Blacks were after me but to think they were so close to me is certainly worrying or I should say it *was* worrying." Devon boasted, "They would never even dare to try and capture me..."

"What do you mean?" Elena retorted.

"Let's just say I'm somewhere in the old America. They'll have to go through hell to reach to me and by then, they would be so exhausted, they'll barely be able to move let alone fight. Everything is under my control here."

"Where exactly are you?"

"You're a fool. A capable woman, but a fool." You seriously expect me to give you that vital information when you're most probably compromised?" Devon retorted, "You'll get your next consignment of beast crystals, and that's it. No more beast crystals, no more partnership. If you want some then go and collect them the old way. It's too risky for me to carry on our partnership anymore. This will be the last time you contact me. Understood?"

"Wait! You can't do- HEY! GET BACK HERE! DAMN IT ALL!" Elena yelled and threw the communicator out of the helicopter. "That son of a b*tch! Curse the Black Family! I'm going to end them..."

While Elena was busy ranting and cursing the Black Family, her pilot, Roland, calmly made the helicopter hover and fly towards their destination while smiling now and then.

'A b*tch like you deserves every bit of crap that gets thrown in your way.' He thought, after all, he hated her from the bottom of his heart.

***

A FEW HOURS LATER...

Arnold watched the retreating helicopter with an unwavering gaze, as the fiery red orb of light slowly sank beneath the horizon, and threads of light lingered in the sky, mingling with the rolling clouds, dyeing the sky first in orange, and then red, until all that was left of the sunset was a chalky mauve, and then that melted away in turn as stygian darkness slowly tried to take over the sky. Sequin-silver stars like the glowing embers of a dying fire winked down at him as the helicopter carrying his sister and friends disappear out of his sight as he was facing over the dipping sun, two smartly dressed Major ranked officers made their way to him.

"What are your orders, sir?" Both of them simultaneously saluted him.

"Carry on with your usual duties and notify the Bravo, Charlie, and Delta bases that they should expect a visit from me soon." Arnold ordered the Majors who immediately left after receiving the orders and Arnold went back to gazing at the sleeping sun.

'That crazy bastard outdid himself this time... what was he even thinking when he named me the Section Chief of Zone 4...' Arnold sighed heavily but then smiled.

After the dungeon break, The United States of America was divided into two parts, namely East America and West America. West America retained its former glory while East America was established as the first wall of defence for it, but it wasn't all. To increase the efficiency of the defensive measures, East America was further divided into 13 smaller parts. These were named as Zone 1 to Zone 13. Each of these zones had multiple bases in them and a Section Chief was appointed to oversee the Zones.

Each of the Section Chiefs had to prove themselves to be worthy of the position by accomplishing a troublesome task, like Arnold who got rid of the Church of Chaos and thus was named to be the section chief of Zone 4, thus placing himself even above the Brigadier General, whose authority was limited to the base itself.

So far only 5 out of the 13 Zone had been allotted a Section Chief, the rest were controlled by the Syndicate, Zone 4, was one of the zones without a Section Chief but now Arnold had been appointed as its Chief and it wasn't a sole decision of Nathan either, the syndicate itself had appointed Arnold for the position, stating, he was more than worthy of being a Section Chief. Nathan even told him that out of the twelve heads of the syndicate, ten voted for him while the White and the Lash family voted against him.

While the White family voted against him because of their rivalry and bitterness towards the Black Family, while Andrex Lash, simply did so because of Arnold's racial origins, a petty reason but Arnold didn't care. (Author's note: Visit chapter 83 if you don't remember who Andrex is and why he's a racist.)

Nathan also informed him that out of the 5 Section Chiefs, Arnold was the second person from the Black Family to be rewarded that rank, Azyriah, being the first one. She was the Section Chief of Zone 1, which was nearest to Florida. Knowing this put Arnold's mind at ease because Zone 1's role would be crucial, once they launch an attack on the swamps.

As such, Arnold felt an ominous foreboding before he felt happiness, "This duty would be tiresome. On top of that, I already have a long and tiring quest to complete... monsters to hunt, weapons to make, got people to train, technologies to analyse including that weird monster controlling collar, and I'll have to raise a Wyvern soon... which I assume would be troublesome as well. Damn, I have to feed it soon too. Too many tasks and so little time! If only there were more hours in a day...'

It then hit him, he indeed had a way to increase the time.

'Wait! I can use the void to save some time and my summons can help me out as well!'

With a plan in his mind, Arnold opened a portal to the void and quickly stepped into it, before someone came looking for him again.