The Author's POV

My next set of actions was quick.

As I was dealing with a Marquis-ranked demon, every little second mattered.

Taking out a stack of magic cards from my dimensional system, I injected them with my mana before throwing them in the air.

Swiping my hand, three rings formed around the igniting cards.

By the time the cards were about to fully ignite, the rigs turned red and a small ball of fire resembling a sun was contained in the middle of the rings.

"Go."

With a simple wave, the rings flew toward the sky.

"What's this?"

Catching sight of the ball of fire, Marquis Atheora reached his hand out. But it was already too late.

BOOOM—!

A large cloud of fire bloomed in the air and accompanying it was a thunderous explosion.

The fire receded after a couple of seconds, but it served its purpose.

"Anytime now..."

"You."

Feeling Marquis Atheora's gaze land on me, I raised my head and stared back at him.

Slowly descending to the ground, he looked back at the area where I threw my attack.

"What were you trying to do?"

"Testing something."

"...You seriously want me to believe that?"

Raising his head, he smelled the air. His face changed a little.

"This sensation..."

I felt his gaze pause on me, as he carefully scrutinized my body. After a while, his eyes opened up.

"You...You're not a demon."

'Ah, looks like the cat is out of the bag...'

In order to make it seem like I was a demon, I had placed a couple of cores inside of my body. By simply creating a thin coating of mana, I stopped the demons from regenerating, and in the process, created an effect that made it seem as though I had demonic energy inside of my body.

This was a trick that I learned from my other-self.

It was quite a useful one at that as it really helped me out quite a bit. Without it, I would've probably been found out in the first month.

Had it not been for my last attack that left some lingering mana in the air, Marquis Atheora would have never found out.

"A pity..."

I muttered underneath my breath.

"I don't know how you—"

Stopping himself mid-sentence, Marquis Atheora's head snapped toward the distance. It was then that he managed to spot several demons heading his way, coming from the northern side.

His face finally changed.

"This..."

Staring at him from below, I smiled from behind my mask.

"It looks like someone noticed all of the commotions you've caused."

Not quite.

From the moment that I decided to help him out, I knew that he was going to try to silence me. Even if he wasn't, I wasn't still going to go through with my plans.

one. That is, act as bait and lure

there was a better time than to get rid of him, it would

That said.

someone that I could kill. Our rank difference was just too

need to kill

had convinced him to ambush the Greed

the Sloth clan was planning on ambushing the Greed clan,

fireball I just threw was a

to backstab me from the very

me out of it, I felt a malicious and terrifying glare directed in my

as my direction my attention toward the opposite side, the

should also be coming

in the distance and I saw nothing, my forehead

I mismatch my timing?...or did they ignore my

was going

burst of

"You..."

and the area around me started to twist. Turning around, I realized that Marquis

'Shit...'

terrifying aura that was directed in my direction, I once again turned to look into the distance. Yet again,

Chronos, I started to assess the

of my head started to run at full throttle as I tried to figure out my

is going to be a bust. Do I have

"You don't."

me. As usual, it was the other me

"What do you mean?"

a little

pause, his

only serve to alert Jezebeth of your appearance

"...You're right."

power, I became

me. What if he showed up in

made me extremely apprehensive about using my

midst of my thoughts, the other

order to save Amanda's father. It's best if you save it for then. Not only that but it's best if fewer demons know about you being a human. If they are made aware of your presence, all clans will start hunting

doesn't really

"You worry too much."

he stared into the distance. Unlike me,

If something doesn't

"...Alright."

I raised my head and met

the sheath of my sword, I activated my sword's effect, and the mana inside of my body started to circulate at a faster

the same time,

difference was a bit more than one rank, it didn't have too much of an effect on

the time he recovered from the effect, I had

of the [Keiki style] :

Click—!

air. At the same time my vision started to distort, I saw Marquis Atheora's attack shoot in the direction of where I

Boooom—!

second, it arrived in the area that I was previously standing

speed, I was unable to come out unscathed as I ended up crashing against multiple trees, and felt tremendous pain invade every

Bang—!

"Ukhhh..."

That said.

I had survived.

"It hurts..."

a little. I had trouble moving as some of my bones were broken,

chugged down a couple

I recovered the demons in the distance had already arrived and had

It looks like the information wasn't

sadistic voice echoed throughout the air as another demon that bore striking resemblance to Marquis Atheora

he was, but I knew that he was an executive coming from the Gluttony clan. A

Sloth clan, they obviously did not refuse it and secretly

believe in my plan at first, but it wasn't exactly

I told them that the Sloth clan would make a move against the Greed clan, all they had to do was check for any movement, and from there, they were

could be considered a minor conflict. It wasn't anything

That aside.

doubt that they had set countermeasures in the off-chance

"Marquis Exion."

he said those words. With narrowed eyes, demonic