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

bloodlust exuded from its body, suffocating

"Let me introduce myself..."

-Fwap!

bat-like wings expanded from its back casting a large

forward, smiling from ear to ear, the demon

"I am—baron of everblood!"

...

large spacious luxurious corridor, a middle-aged man leisurely walked. His hair which was tied in

corridor, the people that were next to him stepped to the side to let him walk. Despite his looks, he was treated

-Ding!

man felt a small vibration from his pocket followed

-Ding!

-Ding!

-Ding!

"...Hm?"

about to ignore it thinking that it was

right, the middle-aged man took out a small

the black box, the middle-aged man's

be more troublesome than

where he was standing and reappeared in front of a gate with the number <<756>>

"Stop right there"

he appeared, two

1, Timothy 2...I don't have time for this

fact, Thomas. Taking out the small box from his pocket, Thomas showed

two guards immediately moved to the

disappeared once

hope it's nothing

were the last words the two guards heard before Thomas disappeared

...

"B-baron o-f everblood!"

demon introduced itself, like when you replaced a rusty gear, everything started to click into

of the vanity tribe, sub-branch of

right before the third cataclysm in the later half

'W-hy was he here?'

not something a G

ranked from, King, Prince/Princess, Duke, Marquis, Earl, Viscount, and

demons, were Duke-ranked demons whose power level was around SS,

the approximate power levels

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 increase in

were keeping the Prince/Princess ranked demons in

them, humanity would've

great shock to know that I was currently

Baron-ranked demon was four ranks higher than

wonder I felt so much

everything started

But wait...

demon, why didn't the dungeon

to me, causing

"Dungeon overload..."

"...Hm?"

demon looked at

you know

up, I could see the demon looking at me in both shock

...as expected.

trying to cause

energy. However, contrary to when dungeons desync, where the dungeon just loses

of monsters suddenly appearing out of nowhere. The consequences alone would be

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

unstable Earth was, 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 the Demon King was

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 the point that almost every race in the universe was forced to join hands

only one planet 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 Demon King's mercy. Knowing this, many forces have joined together in a last-ditch attempt to

ascension, there was another factor that prevented the demons

was, apart from demons, the demon army was still

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

overloads weren't considered a

event that 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 almost every

to adapt to earth's atmosphere and survive. Soon the earth was overturned

suddenly backstabbed you just to ensure their

was the beginning of

-Fwap!