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

exuded from its

"Let me introduce myself..."

-Fwap!

wings expanded from

forward, smiling from ear to ear, the demon elegantly

"I am—baron of everblood!"

...

which was tied in a ponytail, accompanied by

that were next to him stepped to the side to let him walk. Despite

-Ding!

a small vibration from his

-Ding!

-Ding!

-Ding!

"...Hm?"

he was about to ignore it thinking that it was nothing important, his

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

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

more

standing and reappeared in front of a gate with

"Stop right there"

as he appeared, two white-clad individuals

1, Timothy 2...I don't

was in fact, Thomas. Taking out the small box from his pocket, Thomas showed it to the

two guards immediately moved to the side and

once again and reappeared inside of the

hope it's

the last words the two guards heard

...

"B-baron o-f everblood!"

soon as the demon introduced itself, like when you replaced

the vanity tribe, sub-branch of the demon clan of pride,

appears right before the third cataclysm

'W-hy was he here?'

was not something a G rank like me

King, Prince/Princess, Duke, Marquis,

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

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

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

humanity would've long gone

great shock to know that I was currently in front of a

Baron-ranked demon was four

wonder I felt

as everything

But wait...

a Baron-ranked demon, why

me, causing my pupils to

"Dungeon overload..."

"...Hm?"

looked

did you

see the demon looking at me

...as expected.

actually trying

involved a dungeon becoming oversaturated with energy. However, contrary to when dungeons desync, where the dungeon just loses connection to

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

gone extinct. It was simply

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

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

King was 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

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

from demons, the demon army was still

atmosphere, due to earth only have been exposed to

dungeon overloads

a certain point, the 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 dungeon around the

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 law and order ceased to exist and

thought were your friends suddenly backstabbed you

was the beginning of the third

-Fwap!