The Author's POV

It felt as if time had frozen. My mind blanked. My blood froze. My breathing quickened. My pupils dilated.

...I thought I was prepared.

Since reincarnation inside of my novel, I knew that one day I would encounter a demon.

I was ready...I thought

But looking at the creature haughtily sitting on the throne, hallucinations of death repeatedly replayed in my mind.

'I have to run!'

...I repeated again and again in my mind.

I knew that...yet my legs refused to listen to me

Ba...dump! Ba...dump!

The hall was silent, and only the sound of my heartbeat repeatedly pulsing could be heard.

Sweat started dripping down from my body, soaking all my clothes. With a shivering hand, I tightly clenched on my clothes, right where my heart was.

What's this...?

...Am I scared?

'There's no way I can fight against that!'

...was what my mind repeatedly told itself as my eyes transfixed themselves onto the demonic creature that was amusingly looking down on me from the throne. With its blood-red eyes, the demon looked down at me as it smiled widely.

"It seems like a little mouse has sneaked inside my abode"

Licking its lips, the demon eyes carefully looked at me up and down, almost as if a delicious snack had presented itself before it.

-Crack! -Crack! -Crack!

Using its thumb, the demon slowly cracked every one of its fingers on its right hand.

"huuuuu...."

Letting out a long breath I forcefully tried to calm myself down.

'This is all an illusion!'

What I was experiencing was the innate fear a prey faced when meeting a predator.

If I thought about it rationally, although my opponent was strong, it wasn't to the point that I would have to despair.

Yes...

The demon's stats couldn't be above F rank, else the dungeon would've already desynced.

The fear I was experiencing was all in my mind.

I didn't have to fear what was before me.

...was what I repeatedly tried to tell myself, yet I still couldn't stop my body from trembling.

The feeling I was experiencing was similar to the moments before I took my final exams.

I knew I could do it, as I had prepared rigorously for it...but even if I was prepared, it didn't stop me from being scared.

"How cute..."

Amusingly looking down on me, the Demon leaned forward as its red eyes carefully looked at me.

Instantly, it felt as if all my secrets had been laid bare for the demon to look at. It felt as if nothing could be hidden from its two prying blood-red eyes.

"G rank..."

-tap! -tap! -tap!

Shaking its head disappointedly the Demon began tapping on the armrest of the throne as it started pondering.

Finally, after a couple of seconds, the Demon shook its head in disappointment.

"Too bad, too bad..."

demon's demeanor completely changed from

from its body,

"Let me introduce myself..."

-Fwap!

from

one step forward, smiling from ear to

"I am—baron of everblood!"

...

leisurely walked. His hair which was tied in a ponytail, accompanied by his unkempt beard and sunglasses made him look

the corridor, the people that were next to him stepped to the side to let him

-Ding!

a small vibration from his pocket followed by a

-Ding!

-Ding!

-Ding!

"...Hm?"

was about to ignore it thinking that

the middle-aged man took out a

the contents on the black box, the middle-aged man's brows

may be more troublesome than

man disappeared from where he was standing and reappeared in

"Stop right there"

two white-clad individuals

Timothy 2...I don't

the middle-aged man was in fact, Thomas. Taking out the small box from his pocket, Thomas showed it

two guards immediately moved to the side and

the two guards move, Thomas disappeared once

just hope it's

guards heard before Thomas

...

"B-baron o-f everblood!"

itself, like when you replaced a rusty gear, everything started

sub-branch of the demon clan of pride, and

third cataclysm in

'W-hy was he here?'

something a G rank like me

demons were ranked from, King, Prince/Princess, Duke,

human power level. Following Prince/Princess ranked demons, were Duke-ranked demons whose power level was around SS,

the approximate power levels of the

humanity could only fend off at most against Duke-ranked demons. If a Prince/Princess ranked demon showed up, humanity would stand no chance as each rank increase was a substantial

were keeping

not for them, humanity would've long

it came as a great shock to know that

that a Baron-ranked demon was four

felt

thought as everything started

But wait...

Baron-ranked demon, why didn't

to me, causing

"Dungeon overload..."

"...Hm?"

demon looked at me in

did you know

I could see the demon looking

...as expected.

was actually trying to

it involved a dungeon becoming oversaturated with energy. However, contrary to when dungeons desync, where the dungeon just loses connection to the demon world. In a dungeon overload, all the monsters inside

The consequences alone would be disastrous...Fortunately, this was

still not gone extinct. It

the Demon King was still unable to ascend into the world. Further added with the fact that the Demon King was currently being held back by various forces, the looming threat coming from

Demon King, one of the ultimate overlords of the universe, grew stronger the more planets it ate. Through its numerous exploits in which it conquered and ate planets, the Demon King grew into being one of the strongest creatures

away from becoming the strongest being in the universe. Once it consumed one more planet, no being would be able to stop the Demon King. The world would be at the

ascension, there was another factor that prevented the demons from fully

apart from demons, the demon army was still unable to adapt

the atmosphere, due to earth only have been exposed to mana recently,

overloads weren't considered a

marked the beginning of the third cataclysm happened...Suddenly, as the people on Earth were going about their own day, dungeon overloads started occurring in

the dungeons were able to

you thought were your friends suddenly backstabbed you just to ensure their

the beginning

-Fwap!