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.

first one. That is, act as bait and lure them into a

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

That said.

that I could kill. Our rank difference was just

need to kill him

I had convinced him to ambush the Greed clan, I presented another

Greed clan, and how they could use this opportunity to deal damage to

I just threw was a signal for them to

backstab me from

a malicious and terrifying glare directed in my direction. Without needing to look, I already knew who it

direction my attention toward the opposite side, the

also be coming

as I looked in the distance and I saw nothing,

mismatch my timing?...or did

was going

a burst of aura coming from

"You..."

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

'Shit...'

my direction, I once again turned to look into the distance.

Chronos, I started to assess

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

A is going to be a bust. Do I have no choice but to go

"You don't."

As usual, it was the other

"What do you mean?"

a little bit

pause, his

that using that power will only serve to alert

"...You're right."

power, I became extremely

sent a clone to fight me. What if he showed up in his full form? Wouldn't I

extremely apprehensive about using my

of my thoughts, the other me continued

tap into that power in order to save Amanda's father. It's best if you save it for then. Not only that but it's

doesn't really look

"You worry too much."

the distance. Unlike me,

If something doesn't happen by then, you can go ahead with

"...Alright."

deactivating Eyes of Chronos I raised

second. Placing my hand on the sheath of my

time, I

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

time he recovered from the effect,

the [Keiki style]

Click—!

At the same time my vision started

Boooom—!

it arrived in the area that

I ended up crashing against multiple trees, and felt tremendous pain invade

Bang—!

"Ukhhh..."

That said.

I had survived.

"It hurts..."

little. I had trouble moving as

down a

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

we have here. It looks like

another demon that

executive coming from the Gluttony clan. A clan that wasn't on good terms with the Sloth clan, the clan

Sloth clan,

my plan at first, but it wasn't exactly hard to

the Sloth clan would make a move against the Greed clan, all they had to do was check for any movement,

considered a minor conflict. It

That aside.

set countermeasures in the off-chance that this was also

"Marquis Exion."

he said those words. With narrowed eyes, demonic energy rose