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.

That is, act

injured, if there was a better time

That said.

he wasn't someone that I could kill. Our rank difference was

didn't need to kill

him to ambush the Greed clan, I presented another clan with

how the Sloth clan was planning on ambushing the Greed clan, and how they could use this opportunity to deal

was a signal

actually planned to backstab

me out of it, I felt a malicious and terrifying glare directed in my direction. Without needing to look,

I didn't care as my direction my attention toward the opposite side, the southern area. This was

should also be

looked in the distance and I saw

timing?...or did they

was going to

a burst of aura

"You..."

to twist. Turning around, I realized that Marquis Atheora was preparing to

'Shit...'

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

Chronos, I

my head started to run at full throttle

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

"You don't."

rang from beside me. As usual, it was

"What do you mean?"

a little bit

slight pause, his voice became

mind that using that power will only serve to alert Jezebeth of your appearance in the Demon

"...You're right."

power, I became

only sent a clone to fight me. What if he

extremely apprehensive about using

my thoughts, the other me continued

on, you might need to 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 best

situation doesn't really look

"You worry too much."

me, he could freely move in

couple of more minutes. If something doesn't happen by then, you can go ahead with plan

"...Alright."

Chronos I raised my

of my sword, I activated my sword's effect,

time, I activated 'The

much of an effect

the effect, I had already gathered

the

Click—!

a low clicking sound rang in the air. At the same time my vision started to distort, I saw Marquis Atheora's attack shoot in the

Boooom—!

the area that I

up

Bang—!

"Ukhhh..."

That said.

I had survived.

"It hurts..."

my teeth, I lifted my body up a little. I had trouble moving as some of my bones were broken, but it was

down a couple

demons in the distance had already arrived and had surrounded

who we have here. It looks like

another demon that bore striking resemblance to

exactly who he was, but I knew that he was an executive coming from the Gluttony clan. A clan that wasn't on good terms

an opportunity to deal damage to the Sloth clan, they

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

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

them, this could be considered a minor conflict.

That aside.

they had set countermeasures in the off-chance

"Marquis Exion."

filled with spite as he said those words. With narrowed eyes, demonic energy rose from his body