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 as bait and lure them

there was a better time than to

That said.

he was injured, he wasn't someone that I could kill.

need to

convinced him to ambush the Greed

on ambushing the Greed clan, and how they could use

was a signal for

planned to backstab me from the very

terrifying glare directed in my direction. Without

attention toward the opposite side, the southern area. This was only half of

should also be

the distance and I saw nothing, my forehead

my timing?...or did they ignore

was

burst of aura coming

"You..."

area around me started to

'Shit...'

direction, I once again turned to look

Eyes of Chronos, I started

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

a bust. Do I have no choice but

"You don't."

rang from beside me. As usual, it was the other me appearing from out

"What do you mean?"

little

pause, his

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

"...You're right."

I became

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

extremely apprehensive about

of my thoughts, the other me continued

it for then. Not only that but it's

situation doesn't really

"You worry too much."

the distance. Unlike me,

If something doesn't happen by then,

"...Alright."

Chronos I

a fraction of a second. Placing my hand on the sheath of my sword,

same time,

effect on Marquis Atheora

recovered from the effect, I had already gathered

movement of the [Keiki

Click—!

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

Boooom—!

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

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

Bang—!

"Ukhhh..."

That said.

I had survived.

"It hurts..."

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

chugged down a couple of

time I recovered the demons in the distance

we have here. It looks like the information wasn't

the air as another demon that bore striking

knew that he was an executive coming from the Gluttony clan. A clan that wasn't

Sloth clan, they obviously did

my plan at first, but it wasn't exactly

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

be considered a minor conflict.

That aside.

the off-chance that this was also

"Marquis Exion."

as he said those words. With narrowed eyes,