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.

were essentially the same as the first one. That is, act as bait and lure them

now injured, if there was a better time than to get

That said.

he wasn't someone that I could

didn't need to kill

just like I had convinced him to ambush the Greed clan, I presented another clan with a similar

Greed clan, and

threw was a

planned to backstab me from

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

I didn't care as my direction my attention toward the opposite side,

also

in the distance and

mismatch my timing?...or did

so, this was

a burst of aura coming

"You..."

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

'Shit...'

I once again turned to look into the

Eyes of Chronos, I started

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

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

"You don't."

beside me. As usual, it was the other me

"What do you mean?"

a little

pause,

mind that using that power will only serve to alert

"...You're right."

Jezebeth's power, I became

to fight me. What if he showed up in his

the thought made me extremely apprehensive about using

of my thoughts, the

ideal. Later 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 if fewer demons know about you being

doesn't

"You worry too much."

into the distance. Unlike me, he could freely move

more minutes. If something doesn't happen

"...Alright."

I raised my head and

fraction of a second. Placing my hand on the sheath of my sword, I activated my sword's effect, and the mana inside of my body started to circulate at

same time, I activated 'The

our rank difference was a bit more than one rank, it didn't have too much of an effect on Marquis Atheora as it only worked to distract him for a split second. But it

the effect, I had already gathered

movement of the [Keiki style] : Void

Click—!

air. At the same time my vision started to distort, I

Boooom—!

in the area

ended up crashing against multiple trees, and felt tremendous pain invade every part of

Bang—!

"Ukhhh..."

That said.

I had survived.

"It hurts..."

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

chugged down a couple

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

have here. It looks like the information

the air as another demon that bore

that he was an executive coming from the Gluttony clan. A clan that wasn't on good terms with the

opportunity to deal damage to the Sloth clan, they obviously

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

move against the Greed clan, all they had to do was check for any

to them, this could be considered a minor conflict. It wasn't

That aside.

the off-chance that this was also a

"Marquis Exion."

said those words. With narrowed eyes, demonic energy rose from his body at an