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

better time than to get

That said.

was injured, he wasn't someone that I could kill. Our rank difference was just too

to kill him myself

the Greed clan, I presented another clan with a

clan was planning on ambushing the Greed clan, and how they could use

just threw was

actually planned to backstab me from

glare directed in

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

should also be

as I looked in the distance and I saw nothing,

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

was going

a burst of

"You..."

to twist. Turning around, I realized

'Shit...'

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

of Chronos, I

throttle as I tried

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

"You don't."

voice rang from beside me. As usual, it was

"What do you mean?"

little

a slight pause, his voice became

will only serve to alert

"...You're right."

Jezebeth's power, I became

to fight me. What if he showed up in his full form? Wouldn't I just die with a

thought made me extremely apprehensive

of my thoughts, the

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

situation doesn't

"You worry too much."

stared into the distance. Unlike me, he could freely move in this slowed down

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

"...Alright."

eyes and deactivating Eyes of Chronos I raised my head and met Marquis Atheora's

actions all happened within a fraction of a second. Placing my hand on the sheath of my sword, I activated my sword's effect, and the mana

the same time, I activated 'The

it didn't have too much of an effect

recovered from the effect,

movement of the

Click—!

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

Boooom—!

a split second, it arrived in the area that I

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

Bang—!

"Ukhhh..."

That said.

I had survived.

"It hurts..."

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

quickly chugged down a couple

demons in the distance

we have here. It looks

another demon that bore striking resemblance to

from the Gluttony clan. A

to the Sloth clan, they obviously did not refuse it and secretly

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

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

this could be considered a minor conflict.

That aside.

didn't doubt that they had set countermeasures in the off-chance that this was also a trap, but it didn't

"Marquis Exion."

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