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..."

decision, the demon's demeanor completely changed from its leisurely self

thick bloodlust exuded from

"Let me introduce myself..."

-Fwap!

up, the demon's large bat-like wings expanded from its back casting a

smiling from ear

"I am—baron of everblood!"

...

middle-aged man leisurely walked. His hair which was tied in a ponytail, accompanied by his unkempt

to the side to let him walk. Despite

-Ding!

middle-aged man felt a small vibration from his pocket

-Ding!

-Ding!

-Ding!

"...Hm?"

to ignore it thinking that

noticing that something wasn't right, the middle-aged man

the

be more troublesome

and reappeared in front of a gate with the

"Stop right there"

appeared, two white-clad individuals obstructed his

Timothy 2...I don't

the small box from his pocket, Thomas showed

box, the two guards immediately moved to the side and

the two guards move, Thomas disappeared once

hope

words the two guards heard before Thomas

...

"B-baron o-f everblood!"

soon as the demon introduced itself, like when you replaced

the vanity tribe, sub-branch

that only appears right before the third

'W-hy was he here?'

a G rank

ranked from, King, Prince/Princess,

level. Following Prince/Princess ranked demons, were Duke-ranked demons whose power level was around SS, the same as the strongest humans alive. After Duke-ranked demons were Marquis-ranked demons at a power level of around S followed

were the approximate power levels

at most against Duke-ranked demons. If a Prince/Princess ranked demon showed up, humanity would stand

Orcs were keeping

humanity would've

power levels of the demons, it came as a great shock to know that I was currently in front of a

a Baron-ranked demon was four

wonder I felt so

thought as everything started to

But wait...

Baron-ranked demon, why

to me, causing my pupils to dilate as I silently

"Dungeon overload..."

"...Hm?"

looked

you

the demon looking at me in both shock and

...as expected.

actually trying

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

tens of thousands of monsters suddenly appearing out of nowhere. The consequences alone would be disastrous...Fortunately, this was

reason why humanity had still not gone extinct. It was simply

Further added with the fact that the Demon King was currently being held back by various forces, the looming threat coming from the Demon

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 in the whole universe. It had gotten to

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 Demon King's mercy. Knowing this, many forces have joined together in a last-ditch attempt to stop him from

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

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

the low mana density in the atmosphere, due to earth only have been exposed to

overloads weren't considered a

the earth's mana density reached a certain point, the event that marked the beginning of the third cataclysm happened...Suddenly, as the people on

that came out from the dungeons were able to adapt to earth's

thought were your friends suddenly backstabbed

was the beginning of

-Fwap!