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..."

come up with a decision, the demon's demeanor completely changed from its

from its

"Let me introduce myself..."

-Fwap!

large bat-like wings expanded from its back casting a

forward, smiling from ear to

"I am—baron of everblood!"

...

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

stepped to the side to let him walk.

-Ding!

a small vibration from his pocket followed by

-Ding!

-Ding!

-Ding!

"...Hm?"

about to ignore it thinking that it

that something wasn't right, the middle-aged man took out a small black box from

at the contents on the black box, the middle-aged man's brows knit together in a

be more

reappeared in front of a gate with the

"Stop right there"

as he appeared, two white-clad individuals obstructed

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

out the small box from his pocket, Thomas showed it to the

the box, the two guards immediately moved to the side and allowed

disappeared once again and reappeared inside of the

just hope it's

guards heard before Thomas disappeared

...

"B-baron o-f everblood!"

itself, like when you replaced a rusty gear,

sub-branch of the demon clan

only appears right before the third cataclysm in

'W-hy was he here?'

a G rank like me could

King, Prince/Princess, Duke, Marquis, Earl, Viscount, and lastly

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 by Earl-ranked demons at

approximate power levels of the

most against Duke-ranked demons. If a Prince/Princess ranked demon showed up, humanity would stand no chance

Dwarves, Elves, and Orcs were keeping the Prince/Princess ranked demons

for them, humanity would've long

came as a great shock to know that I was currently in front of a baron-ranked

Baron-ranked demon

I felt so much

thought as everything

But wait...

Baron-ranked demon, why didn't the

me, causing my pupils to dilate as I silently

"Dungeon overload..."

"...Hm?"

looked at me in

did you

looking at me in both shock and

...as expected.

actually trying to

was similar to a dungeon desync in that 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

suddenly appearing out of nowhere. The consequences alone would be disastrous...Fortunately, this was not a problem

humanity had still not gone

how 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

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

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

from the Demon King's ascension, there was another factor that prevented the demons from fully engaging against

demon army was

of the low mana density in the atmosphere, due to earth only have been exposed to mana recently, monsters couldn't

overloads

cataclysm happened...Suddenly, as the people on Earth were going about their

normal dungeon overloads where the monsters inside of it would die immediately upon entering the human world, the monsters that came out from the dungeons were able to adapt to earth's atmosphere and survive. Soon the earth was overturned into an apocalyptic world where

thought were your friends suddenly backstabbed you just

the beginning of the third

-Fwap!